The imprisonment of women is increasing across western jurisdictions not, it seems, because more women are committing serious crime, but because more women are involved in relatively minor offending, often drug related. The challenge is identifying and putting into effect policies and practices that provide alternatives to imprisonment for the many women across different jurisdictions that are imprisoned and vulnerable but who do not pose a significant threat to the communities in which they live. Perhaps the most striking feature of offending by women is its relative infrequency in comparison with offending by men. Across different jurisdictions, women represent a relatively small proportion of those convicted and sentenced by the courts. This brief comparative analysis suggests that women’s offending is less common and less serious than offending by men. In this chapter, the author focuses on the nature of female offending in different jurisdiction by considering the rate, frequency, seriousness, and types of offenses for which women are convicted and how this differs from men. Comparative trends in female imprisonment are also examined and reasons for the unprecedented rise in the imprisonment of women are considered. It concludes by considering policy initiatives that have been introduced in several countries to reduce offending by and imprisonment of women. References