Women, girls outnumber male counterparts in prisons: study

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KUWAIT CITY, Sept 28, (Agencies): More than 700,000 women and girls are held in penal institutions throughout the world, according to the third edition of the World Female Imprisonment List, researched and compiled by Roy Walmsley and published by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London, according to reports. Kuwait is classified among the top countries in terms of the proportion of women prisoners, with 13.8 percent of the total prison population and Qatar with 14.7 percent among Arab countries.

At the world level Hong Kong has 19.4 percent and Macau 17.7 percent, Myanmar 16.3 percent, Bolivia, Thailand and Vietnam higher than 14 percent.

The analysis indicates female prison population levels have grown much faster than their male counterparts since around 2000, with the number of women and female teenagers in prison increasing by 50 percent over the past 15 years.

The study provides information for almost all countries in the world about the female prison population, the percentage of the total prison population they comprise and the rate per 100,000 of the national population.

It also includes information about trends in female imprisonment. It shows more than 200,000 imprisoned women and female teenagers are in the US (205,400) and more than 100,000 are in China. The next highest totals are in the Russian Federation (53,304), Thailand (44,751), Brazil (37,380), Vietnam (20,553), India (18,188) and Mexico (13,400). The female prisoners generally constitute between two and nine percent of the total prison population. Apart from the three countries with very small national populations, the highest levels are in Hong Kong- China (over 19 percent), Macau- China (almost 18 percent), Myanmar (over 16 percent), Bolivia, Qatar, Thailand and Vietnam (between 14 and 15 percent) and Kuwait (almost 14 percent).

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