Women unfairly convicted under joint enterprise laws, research claims
More than 100 women are serving long prison sentences after being unfairly convicted for violent crimes under archaic joint enterprise laws, new research claims.
A report authored by criminologists from Manchester Metropolitan University reveals the experiences of women in prison convicted under joint enterprise - a historic principle in common law which allows defendants to be tried for serious violent offences even if they did not carry out the actual act itself.
The report, Stories of Injustice, reveals for the first time that least 109 women have been sentenced to long prison terms of joint enterprise convictions.
This number includes a girl charged at 13-years-old - one of six cases involving girls under the age of 16 - while over a third were aged 18-25.
The report states that the majority have convictions for serious violent offences, with more than three quarters convicted for murder or manslaughter. This is despite the fact that in no cases did the woman or girl use a deadly weapon, in 90% of cases they engaged in no violence at all, and in half they were not even present at the scene.
Yet most of the women are serving long or indeterminate prison sentences at an average of 15 years, with 47% serving life sentences of up to 30 years.
We would argue that these women are wrongfully convicted, and that charging them for violent crimes they did not commit is neither in the public interest, or delivering justice to victims and communities
The report was authored by Manchester Metropolitan University criminologists Becky Clarke and Dr Kathryn Chadwick for JENGbA, a national campaign group against the use of joint enterprise laws.
Wrong turn
Despite a 2016 Supreme Court ruling which found the law had “taken a wrong turn” when it comes to joint enterprise, this research argues that secondary parties (as they are known in the law) continue to be convicted as if they committed the offence – with 16 of the women convicted since this ruling.
Clarke, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, said: “The experiences of the 109 women examined in our report paint a harrowing picture of injustice which is currently sanctioned by our legal system. We would argue that these women are wrongfully convicted, and that charging them for violent crimes they did not commit is neither in the public interest, or delivering justice to victims and communities.
“Once in the courtroom, prosecutions rely on stigmas and stereotypes to secure convictions with little evidence of the defence teams and judges challenging their use. There are some women caught up in these trials whose own experiences of violence, control, and mental ill health are silenced, with the women’s punishment further hiding missed opportunities by state agencies to provide care or protection. Any response to this evidence must go beyond legal reform to an end to the use of joint enterprise in these cases, and a wider reimagining of justice for women.”
The report finds that women are charged with limited evidence, using legal practices that remain hidden. Prosecutors, they argue, rely on gendered, class-based and racist stereotypes to secure convictions.
In almost one half of the cases there had been a repeated failure by the police and other agencies to protect the women from violence as children and adults, or to respond to their health or care needs.
Recommendations
The report authors and campaigners have called for a moratorium on the use of joint enterprise and secondary liability with women, and increased transparency and accountability in the decisions to use secondary liability by the Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in cases involving female defendants in multi-offender cases.
They also argue that the evidence on the use of joint enterprise with women defendants should be scrutinised by a Parliamentary Committee with appropriate jurisdiction, alongside a ‘People’s Panel’ of relevant experts and interested parties, as well as the removal of existing barriers to legal appeals for those women currently in prison where there is a very real possibility of a miscarriage of justice.
The findings will be discussed at a parliamentary panel event on Thursday, featuring contributions from Shadow Justice Secretary David Lammy MP, MP for Manchester Central Lucy Powell, and former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell MP, alongside the report authors, women and families affected.
The new research builds on influential 2016 research by Clarke and Dr Patrick Williams which argued that BAME prisoners convicted of murder and manslaughter by joint enterprise were more likely to have been unfairly identified by police as members of dangerous gangs to help secure convictions. Their research has since been cited in parliament and by the United Nations.
