The rise in the number of female offenders getting into the criminal justice system and the scarcity of programs and services focusing on their needs has made the professionals in the criminal justice system look into their supervision and sanctioning with regards to gender. While there is more comprehensive information with regards to the characteristics of female offenders in jails and prisons, there is still scarce data on the correctional settings of female offenders in the community (Rafter, 2017) . The lack of adequate information about women criminal justice has been justified on the basis that female offenders account for a small portion of arrests and that generally, women commit fewer crimes than men. As Chesney-Lind & Pasko (2013) observes, however, this justification is ignorant of the fact that female offenders who get into the justice system even if they are in small numbers or less violent play a significant role and become extensive users of the prison system.
When the society solely focuses on the overwhelming population of the male and juvenile offenders in the criminal justice system, the services and policies do not fully exhaust the diverse options which can deal with the gender and cultural issues affecting the female offenders in the criminal justice system (Duwe & Clark, 2015) . Furthermore, while research points out that community-based program can yield success when handling issues on female delinquents, only a few programs focus on the specific needs of women and girls in the criminal justice system. In addition, not much is known about the characteristics of programs which deal with women or about the elements or criteria which can make the programs to be effective or promote successful outcomes of the programs. This information is particularly important in documenting program characteristics which are associated with positive results for female offenders.
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Several feminist authors have documented and demonstrated the patriarchal nature of the society and several ways through which this system only serves the masculine needs. In trying to create appropriate services for female offenders in the criminal justice system, it is also important that the policies acknowledge the importance of differences in gender as well as the dynamics of gender which are inherent in any society (Rafter, 2017) . Despite claims by systems of taking care of women interests, patriarchal epistemologies have always promoted the needs and desires of masculinity making others invisible (Duwe& Clark, 2015) . The female offenders in the criminal justice system have always been invisible and this kind of invisibility can be translated into oppression.
Most female offenders are unskilled, poor and illiterate. Research done on female inmates in the United States indicate that more than sixty percent were unemployed at the time they were arrested and that a third of them were not looking for any employment (Chesney-Lind & Pasko, 2013) . African American women are disproportionately represented in the prisons and jails in the United States. The same study found that even the women who were employed at the time of arrest were of lower ranks in the economic ladder, with only thirty-seven percent doing legitimate jobs (Chesney-Lind & Pasko, 2013) . Twenty-two percent received public support, sixteen percent were drug dealers while the remaining fifteen percent were involved in shoplifting, prostitution and other illegal activities (Chesney-Lind & Pasko, 2013) .
Lastly, single motherhood is also a common issue affecting female offenders. More than two-thirds of women who are incarcerated in the United States have kids below the age of 18 years. These women deal with enormous guilt because of their absence in their kids' lives. According to Chesney-Lind & Pasko (2013) , many female offenders have had histories of sexual and physical abuse. According to that particular study, eighty percent of female prisoners have at one point of their lives been either physical or sexual abuse. Twenty-nine percent of these population reported that they were physically abused as children and sixty percent getting abused by their partners.
References
Chesney-Lind, M., & Pasko, L. (2013). The female offender: Girls, women, and crime . Sage.
Duwe, G., & Clark, V. (2015). Importance of program integrity: Outcome evaluation of a gender‐responsive, cognitive‐behavioral program for female offenders. Criminology & Public Policy , 14 (2), 301-328.
Rafter, N. (2017). Partial justice: Women, prisons and social control . Routledge.
