Prosecuting Female Terrorists: What Do We Know?

What Might Explain Differences in Terrorism Sentencing?
Existing research may help explain this puzzle. A potentially useful argument to understand different legal responses to women associated with terrorism is that of gendered perceptions of agency. Hodwitz suggests, in the Balkans, women are prosecuted less frequently compared to men due to prevailing perceptions of women as ‘victims’ rather than perpetrators of terrorism, frequently ‘excused entirely from criminal justice proceedings, bearing no more legal liability than children’ (2022: 24). 

Similarly, Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) propose lenient sentences for women may be linked to ‘(often false) gendered assumptions about their limited agency’ (2019: 2). 

There are fewer explanations as to why women may receive heavier sentences than male defendants. However, entrenched gender norms which expect women to be motherly and peaceful may facilitate ‘greater shock value’ (Krona & Caskey, 2023: 9) when women engage in terrorism, amplifying perceptions of danger, and potentially impacting sentencing. 

Further possible explanations may be provided by structural criminal justice considerations. Factors such as a guilty plea, and the application of aggravating or mitigating factors have an important impact on sentencing. Beyond this, judges use guidelines to ensure that sentencing is fair and considers the different circumstances of offenders. The Equal Treatment Bench Book suggests that the impact of imprisonment is more acute on female offenders because many have neither a home nor a job to go to on release; are far more likely to be primary carers of children; and have usually committed a non-violent offence. Considering the different circumstances faced by women, The Female Offending Strategy suggests custodial sentences of less than 12-months should be avoided where possible, in favor of community sentencing. Ongoing analysis of sentencing remarks of 25 terrorism related cases (female n=9, mixed-sex co-defendants n=5, male n=11) seeks to find if these broader factors impact sentencing in terrorism cases. 

Potential Implications 
Existing research provides useful insight into the implications of shorter sentences for female terrorism offenders, suggesting they have an important impact on rehabilitation. Research based on interviews with practitioners in Europe suggested that shorter sentences for female offenders leave ‘less time for in-prison rehabilitation and de-radicalization measures’. Similarly, interview-based research with disengagement and radicalization practitioners in the UK noted that, often, women cannot access prison-based programs ‘because the waiting period is longer than their prison sentences, or because women are convicted of offenses not directly “terrorism-related”—which is a program entry requirement’. Implications of longer sentencing for women prosecuted with terrorism offences is yet to be fully considered. 

Directions for Future Research 
Sentencing is a complex process which accounts for different elements of the offence and the offender and further research is needed to explain the differences observed and isolate the factors causing this variation. Though this analysis is formed of a small data sample, further work in Europe and North America illustrates broadly similar sentencing trends. With existing research emphasizing concerns short sentences for women may have on their rehabilitation, additional research is needed to understand and explore the potential implications this may have for wider criminal justice, counter terrorism, and deradicalization measures. 

*NOTE: ‘Difference’ refers to the difference of female sentence compared to the male sentence.
‘Count’ refers to the number of charges for a single crime, i.e., committing the same crime numerous times.

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CTED. (2019). Gender Dimensions of the Reponse to Returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters. https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/ctc/sites/www.un.org.securitycouncil.ctc/files/feb_2019_cted_trends_report_0.pdf

Equal Treatment Bench Book, (2023). https://www.judiciary.uk/about-the-judiciary/diversity/equal-treatment-bench-book/

Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan 2022 to 2025. (2023).  Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/female-offender-strategy-delivery-plan-2022-to-2025

Hodwitz, O. (2022). Gender-disaggregated data: Regional Analyses of Criminal Justice Outcomes in Terrorism Prosecutions. https://www.coedat.nato.int/publication/researches/16-GenderDisaggregatedData.pdf  

Krona, M., & Caskey, O. (2023). The Gangster and the Bride: The Media Representation of Masculinity and Femininity in News Coverage of Jihadi Terrorists. Terrorism and Political Violence, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2023.2244083  

Mehra, T., Renard, T., Herbach, M., Hecker, M., & Koller, S. (2024). Female Jihadis Facing Justice Comparing Approaches in Europe. https://www.icct.nl/publication/female-jihadis-facing-justice-comparing-approaches-europe  

Monaghan, R., Slocombe, B., Cuddihy, J., & Gregg, N. (2023). Prosecuting Extremists in the UK: An Exploration of Charging, Prosecution, and Sentencing Outcomes. https://crestresearch.ac.uk/resources/prosecuting-extremists-in-the-uk-an-exploration-of-charging-prosecution-and-sentencing-outcomes/

Schmidt, R. (2020). Duped: Examining Gender Stereotypes in Disengagement and Deradicalization Practices. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 45(11), 953-976. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610x.2020.1711586  

Chloe Squires is a doctoral researcher at the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St Andrews. This article is published courtesy of the Center for Research and Evidence on Security Threats(CREST).