Recidivism rate for female sex offenders remains low

By Béatrice St-Cyr-Leroux Nov 27th, 2025

In 5 seconds Underscoring the need for correctional services to treat women differently, a new meta-analysis confirms that women are much less likely than men to commit the same sex crime again.

Crime is not gender-neutral, according to Franca Cortoni.
Photo : Getty

Women commit far fewer sexual offences than men, and their risk of reoffending after returning to the community is also much lower.

A new meta-analysis based on data for 4,208 women shows a recidivism rate of just three per cent, compared to about 13 per cent for men, said Franca Cortoni, a professor emeritus in the School of Criminology at Université de Montréal.

Her analysis was based on 25 years of data (1998 to 2023) and updates the previous meta-analysis from 2010.

A researcher at the International Centre for Comparative Criminology, Cortoni has worked extensively as a clinical psychologist with incarcerated sex offenders in Canada.

Her research results highlight, once again, the importance of moving away from a male-centric approach to criminal justice. she believes.

According to Cortoni, the low recidivism rate for women reflects a broader trend across all time periods and cultures: women commit fewer crimes than men. She attributes this to evolutionary forces.

“Historically, men were responsible for protecting the clan and hunting, while women looked after children and the well-being of the group,” she said. “These roles have shaped enduring behavioural differences.

"For example, while women do commit violent acts, they tend to take fewer physical risks and express violence and transgression differently.”

Franca Cortoni, professor emeritus in the School of Criminology at Université de Montréal
Photo : Courtesy

Different underlying factors

The underlying factors contributing to criminal behaviour also differ between men and women.

For example, the majority of incarcerated women have experienced significant physical and/or sexual violence prior to engaging in criminal activity. In general, women are far more likely to be victimized, either physically or sexually, across all categories of crime.

Another difference, according to Cortoni, is that men tend to externalize their trauma through aggression and anger, while women tend to internalize it. This predisposes them to substance abuse, self-destructive behaviour and impulsivity.

The prevalence of self-harm among incarcerated women reflects this internalized suffering, Cortoni believes.

These differing dynamics then influence the path to crime: for women, drug or alcohol abuse often precedes criminal behaviour, while for men, it typically accompanies a delinquent lifestyle.

'Serious blind spots'

In criminology as in medicine, science has long relied on data on male subjects and generalized the findings to the entire population.

“We’ve seen this, for example, with heart attacks and with sexuality,” said Cortoni. “However, research conducted solely on men has left some serious blind spots.”

She emphasized that recognizing the differences between women and men in criminal behaviour, recidivism rates and reintegration needs is not stereotyping–it’s a matter of scientific rigour.

“Crime is not gender-neutral,” Cortoni commented. “As long as we continue to treat women the same as men in the justice system, we’ll overlook what led them there.”

For a long time, rehabilitation programs for women offenders were copied and pasted from those designed for men.

“The same approaches were applied to women, even though they did not have the same needs or profiles,” said Cortoni.

Since the 1990s, reforms have made correctional services more responsive to women’s realities, with less emphasis on security, more psychological support, more consideration of previous trauma, and a stronger focus on parenthood.

The point is not to give women preferential treatment but to recognize that criminal behaviour and reintegration differ for men and women.

“It’s not about saying that women are better or worse than men; it’s about recognizing that men and women function differently,” Cortoni said.