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The following study aims discovering the factors that have influence the drastic increase of female prisoner in general. Furthermore, special attention to the causes of the differential incarceration rates for women in New South Wales and Victoria is given. Despite similar demographics, Victoria´s female prison population is only a third of the one in New South Wales, with 30 female prisoners per 100 000 adult females compared to merely 13 female prisoners per 100 000 adult females in Victoria (ABS, 2009: 27) As such, this study will focus on changes and differences in sentencing and bail policy and legislation, as well as police practices, approach to support services and budget allocations across states in order to discover which factors contribute to the remarkably differences in female prison population between both jurisdictions.

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Karin Enderle was born 28.9.1984 in Munich. After finishing Highschool,she moved to Sydney, Australia where she studied Social Science, majoring in Crinimology, at the University of New South Wales. Since 2011 Karin is enrolled at LMU Munich, completing a Masters degree in Sociology and Statistics.

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