ARE WOMEN DIFFERENT

While the differences between men and women in their capacity for freq uency and seriousness of antisocial behaviour have probably been exagg erated by social structures and over reliance on official criminal sta tistics as the principal indicator, some differences are almost certai nly robust. Mental disorder may be the greatest leveller in this respe ct, but even so specialist psychiatric services for offender patients are unlikely to be caned upon to deal with more than a very small grou p of women. Some of the implications for service provision are discuss ed. Women's role in child care may be one of the most important issues , but currently receives minimal attention.