One woman in 14 (compared with 1 in 3 men) born in 1953 has been convicted of an offense (excluding traffic offenses and minor offenses such as drunkenness and soliciting) by the age of 31. Forty-four percent of these women (58 percent of the men) had more than one conviction. One in five known offenders are women. Seventy-one percent of women cautioned or found guilty of theft or handling stolen goods in 1990 had shoplifted. A quarter of known women offenders are cautioned by the police; a police caution is a formal warning given to an offender who admits an offense; it is given as an alternative to prosecution. One in five people found guilty by the courts are women. Twenty-one percent of the 810,000 people found guilty in 1990 were women, 28 percent more than in 1980. Seventy-one percent of women found guilty of indictable offenses in 1990 had committed theft, handling, fraud, or forgery. Eleven percent of women had committed violent or sexual offenses. Women offenders are more likely than men to be given a discharge or a treatment order and less likely to be fined or given a community service order. The average daily number of women in prison was 1,597 in 1990 and 1,561 in 1991. Women in prison are more likely than men to have no previous convictions, and the number of black women in prison is disproportionately high. 8 references and 5 tables