This paper provides an overview of some of the international obligations of Australia to women offenders and alleged offenders via the U.N. Bangkok Rules and highlights how abused women are being sent to prison in Australia. It proceeds on 2 bases (i) Judges should approach sentencing a woman as exceptional; (ii) Judges can approach a sentencing exercise differently when the offender is a woman. With reference to opportunities to challenge the treatment of women offenders through UN human rights mechanisms and, after suggesting how sentencing courts might accommodate international principles, this paper suggests a proactive judicial approach to sentencing women offenders to include understanding women offenders generally, a more critical analysis of the long term effect of short term sentences on homes and families and a potentially novel look at solutions for coerced and trafficked women in the criminal justice system. It concludes that sentencing of women who are victims of abuse can accommodate the social problems that underpin the offending and judges can do more to keep women offenders from going or returning to prison
