# Numbers of men vs women behind bars **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367 "2002-08-24T13:49:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![itchinghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19adc/32.png) [@itchinghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/itchinghead)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/1 "2002-08-24T13:49:33Z")
What’s the ratio of men vs women behind bars in the US? Compared to other countries? Has anyone studied why so many more men than women are locked up? Has anyone proposed ways to address this inequity, or are men just assumed to be intrinsically more unruly, brutish, and disposable? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2002, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/2 "2002-08-24T14:42:11Z")
Some numbers (from 2000) [here](http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/prisons000420.html). Men: approx. 1.86 million, women: approx. 90K This is the kind of questioneasily answered by a google search. I blame it all on testosterone. BTW, welcome to the SDMB! ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2002, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/3 "2002-08-24T14:44:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by itchinghead \* > \*\*Has anyone studied why so many more men than women are locked up? Has anyone proposed ways to address this inequity \*\* I guess we could just start locking up more women. Doesn’t seem fair, though, since most crimes (and virtually all violent crimes) are committed by men. ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2002, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/4 "2002-08-24T17:45:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Has anyone proposed ways to address this inequity Reduce the male population? There was a cheesy movie about this very thing. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2002, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/5 "2002-08-24T22:34:41Z")
- Why are there a greater percentage of men in prison than of women? - Err, because men commit more crimes? - Uh, Ok, (End of story) - Why are there a greater percentage of blacks in prison than of whites? - Err, because blacks commit more crimes? - What did you say?!! (All hell breaks loose) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2002, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/6 "2002-08-24T22:40:09Z")
What about drug crimes? If one takes as a premise that drug use tends to cut across racial and gender lines, then shouldn’t the figures for simple possession be very similar? Does anyone know where those stats would be? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/7 "2002-08-25T01:18:12Z")
It has been asserted that many in jail for possession were believed by the cops to be dealers. (I won’t dig up a cite, since I’ve never seen this claim meaningfully substantiated. My copy of the Statistical Abstract shows 1994 arrests by gender. Males make up 80% of all arrests (77% of all serious crimes, 84% of drug abuse violations). The only arrests where females make up a majority of arrestees are Prostitution and Commercialize Vice (39% male) and juvenile runaways (43% male). ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/8 "2002-08-25T01:40:56Z")
To add to the above - the people inside prison cells are those who have been found guilty of crimes (the ‘duh’ moment has been brought to you by the letter C). That being said, not all crime is reported (drug possession for example, shoplifting is only reported when they’ve caught the person), and not all crime is solved. Police tend to focus more attention on solving violent crime (hoping no one needs to have demonstration for that - police will spend lots of time on a murder, virtually zero time on the average property offense). So, the ‘solve’ rate on violent crimes is more than for others. Now, as to the underlying reasons why men are imprisoned more often than women for crimes in general - sometimes a prosecutor will offer a deal to one participant of a crime to testify against another. Sometimes a judge will specifically give a probationary vs. jail sentence to a woman if there’s kids involved (still happens, less often in my experience, but it still happens). The crime (again my experience) women tend to **be found guilty of** tend to be those property crimes where probationary sentences are more likely, again increasing the liklihood of no jail. IN my area, I can only think of about 5 women that I worked w/that did armed robberies (and 4 of em were the drivers, who may or may not have had a clear idea of what was going on), vs. 20 or so males. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/9 "2002-08-25T04:07:48Z")
Numbers of men vs women behind bars Am I the only one that thought this was a thread about bartenders? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/10 "2002-08-25T04:18:03Z")
No, I thought it too. In fact, I thought it through the majority of the OP. I didn’t want to say anything, though, because I didn’t want to sound stupid. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/11 "2002-08-25T04:31:34Z")
Well, I thought the title was so ‘obvious’ that it just HAD to be about bartenders…😃 And as far as the OP goes, well, I think it’s all been said. The crimes that women commit are for the most part, less serious and therefore less deserving of a prison sentence. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/numbers-of-men-vs-women-behind-bars/125367/12 "2002-08-25T06:57:43Z")
What would be more interesting is a study of length of sentence/likelihood of a guilty verdict in male v female cases.