WOMEN are the ugly new faces of crime with disturbing new figures showing there are more females in the dock and behind bars than ever before.
Since 2011, the increase in the number of women being jailed has risen 21 times faster than that of men, according to national figures.
While male offender rates have remained stable over the past decade, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research's most recent data shows a 15 per cent rise for the "fairer sex".
Over the past month in NSW alone, two women were charged with separate murders, while another, aged 39, was charged for the theft of $4900 from a 70-year-old charity worker at Broadway shopping centre.
In that time, women have also been accused of glassings, a stabbing, an armed robbery, an abduction at knifepoint and drugs and illegal firearms offences, including possessing a handmade rifle and a Magnum handgun.
Director of emergency at St Vincent's Hospital, Professor Gordian Fulde, said aggression in women had steadily increased in the past 10 years.
"Now the ladies are very aggressive, they're not holding back," he said.
Researchers agree, saying violent behaviour by women is rising and shows no signs of slowing down.
Dr Michael Kennedy, lecturer in policing at the University of Western Sydney, said as society was changing and women were becoming more independent, that was being reflected in crime.
"Women are just as entrepreneurial as men and if they are good at business, it stands to reason they are going to be just as good at other areas like crime," he said. "In the criminal milieu of days gone by, the woman would stay at home and look after the house, although she would probably know what was going on. Now women have their own business on the side."
The most recent bureau findings show: "The number and proportion of females and juvenile females offending has increased significantly and there has been an elevation in the severity of offences they have committed. These findings suggest that female and juvenile females are committing more violent offences than they did 10 years ago."
Professor Fulde said just as worrying was that society is becoming blase about the increased violence, and alcohol was playing a major role.
"Females used to be more cautious and not get too drunk, but now the ladies are very aggressive, they're not holding back," he said. "We hate it. To have a girl come in with a bad cut to her cheek or a laceration and blood everywhere, it's just not right."
Police sources said women were increasingly becoming accomplices with their "partners", many of whom were criminal gang members.
They added that the females often started off carrying the money, then gravitated to carrying the drugs and weapons so that if their partner, who invariably had a criminal record, was stopped by police, he was in the clear.
The number of women behind bars has increased by 8.4 per cent over the 12 months to last year and an incredible 48 per cent since 2002, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. At the same time, the number of male prisoners increased 0.4 per cent over the previous 12 months and 29 per cent since 2002. Between 1999 and 2009, the number of female prisoners grew by 57 per cent compared to a 35 per cent growth in male prisoners. NSW prisons appear to have bucked the trend. Between 2002 and 2012 the number of women prisoners grew by 24 per cent, but dropped by 3.8 per cent between 2011 and 2012. There were 667 women and 8977 men in the state's jails at June 30, 2012.
In 1999/2000, there were 32,130 females charged by police in NSW. By 2008/2009, that had shot up to 36,818, a steady increase of 1.5 per cent a year or 15 per cent over the decade.
Domestic violence assaults by women was up by 12 per cent each year, breach of bail conditions up by 14% per year and offensive behaviour rose by 3% per cent per year.
A Bureau spokesperson said the trend would be the same today.
She cautioned the 15 per cent increase by women offenders could be due to tougher enforcement action by police law rather than simply an increase in crime.
