New Zealand: Why are there so many men behind bars?

Article here. Excerpt:

'Decades on such notions evidently continue to result in women being treated less harshly by the criminal justice system. Jeffries wrote, "In New Zealand ... women are less likely than men to be ... sentenced to imprisonment" and "[o]nce imprisoned, NZ women receive shorter terms than men."

This was fascinating. I'd never considered the possibility that gender biases would be so deeply entrenched within our justice system.

Those who reject the "chivalry thesis" make claims that women's law-breaking tends to be less serious than that of men, hence the comparably lighter sentences. But a 1999 study using a Ministry of Justice database "[w]ith all independent variables controlled" confirmed "that men were more likely than women to be imprisoned."

It's thought that the domestic role of women as caregivers and centres of the family units is likely to help them secure lighter sentences. Other factors assisting the chivalry theory are that prison is often considered to be a harsher environment for women than it is for men and, thanks to there being fewer women's prisons, female prisoners are likely to be incarcerated further from home than male prisoners typically are.'