FIVE women a day are being charged with violent behaviour in the Lothians, according to new figures on female offending revealed today.
More than 1500 women were arrested for an assault last year, and nearly 2000 were charged with antisocial behaviour in public.
Experts said today that "growing numbers" of women were being embroiled in alcohol-related offences in Edinburgh, and b
lamed the binge-drinking "ladette" culture.
The figures, collated by Lothian and Borders Police and released to the Evening News under freedom of information laws, also reveal:
• Nearly two women a day were caught with drugs last year, while 172 were charged with dealing illegal substances.
• Women were charged with 1417 separate shoplifting offences.
• Thirty-six women were charged with possession of an offensive weapon last year.
• More than 200 women have been charged with serious assault in the past four years, as well as 1561 minor assaults last year.
• Women were charged with 18 cases of robbery and assault.
• And more than 1000 charges of resisting arrest by officers have been made since 2000.
Drug and alcohol campaigners called on more work to be done to support women with addictions from offending. The number of prisoners at Cornton Vale Prison has doubled in the last decade. Nearly all the inmates have a history of drug or alcohol problems.
Tom Wood, head of Edinburgh's Alcohol and Drug Action Team, said the trend for women being charged by police has been "steadily rising for 30 years".
He added: "As women, particularly young women, play an increasingly equal part in society, it is inevitable they will play a greater part in crime too. They go out to drink as men do, so you are bound to see them becoming involved in public order offences.
"With shoplifting, theft and other acquisitive crimes, there is a link between them and women funding a drug or alcohol habit."
Jack Law, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: "Alcohol doesn't cause crime, people do. But there's no doubt that people who have had too much to drink are more likely to get involved in criminal behaviour."
The number of women charged with drink-driving is also on the increase in the Lothians. Only 30 women were charged with the same offence in 2004, but this swelled to 136 last year.
Martin Bonnar, of Turning Point Scotland, which treats many women with substance misuse problems, said: "Women accessing our services often fund their habits through shoplifting and theft, while we also see them involved with breaches of the peace."
The full article contains 439 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
