This essay will crucially examine whether there are inequalities within the criminal justice system between mothers and fathers. It will analyze many statistics about men and women in prison with the ratios of mothers in prison and who is compared to fathers, also compare between crime and relationships with crime to show a clear understanding if there is or not inequalities. The essay will discuss criminological theories linking how crime is viewed in society, the differences between each gender having committed the same crime, the theories that will be used, feminist theory which will focus on how mothers end up in prison and also about how they are treated differently from fathers in the criminal justice system. The second theory will be the tension theory. It will focus on how tensions and pressure can build until a criminal act is committed by women and the consequences of their conviction. It will focus on how children become victims between the incarceration of their parents and the incarceration of their parents. focus on the tension between a mother and a father. Other approaches related to feminist theory and tension theory are oppression, social control and male domination, which will focus on how the construction of uncontrollable actions would lead mothers and fathers to prison and about the enormous role these factors play. It could be argued, and has been made, that all kinds of sexist bias, language and behavior are still common and still enter the criminal justice process based on the sex of the offender. The reason is that the criminal justice system may favor potential female offenders, meaning more men emerge as known offenders (Pollak, 1950). However, the majority of men commit more...... middle of paper ......: Control, Help and Change? London: Joint Inspectorate of Criminal Justice. Ministry of Justice. (September 23, 2010). Monthly prison population tables, August 2010, England and Wales. London, United Kingdom, England. Mooney, J. (2000). Gender, violence and social order. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Pollak, O. (1950). Women's crime. New York: Greenwood Press. Prison Reform Trust. (2010). Women in prison. London: Prison Reform Trust. Smith, P. and Riley, A. (2009). Cultural theory an introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Visher, Calif. (2013). Incarcerated fathers: the paths from prison to home. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 24(1), 9-26.Walklate, S. (2004). Gender crime and criminal justice. Devon: Willan Publishing. Women in prison. (October 1, 2013). STATISTICS. Retrieved November 29, 2013 from Women in Prison: http://www.womeninprison.org.uk.