WITH a history of drug use and domestic violence, Anna was a typical female prisoner. Sexually abused as a child and later raped while working as a prostitute, she needed help and yet she ended up behind bars, serving an 18-month sentence for drug offences. Her case is not unusual.

Anna was brought up by her mother and schizophrenic stepfather. His illness meant her early years were spent in fear of his unpredictability. She was also systematically sexually abused by her uncle, and bullied at school.

Her life became increasingly chaotic and she began to use crack cocaine and heroin as a teenager. By the time she was 16, she was pregnant but suffered a miscarriage, triggering bouts of depression and fuelling her drug use. She ended up living on the street and, to pay for drugs, she became a prostitute. Her past eventually caught up with her and she found herself in Holloway prison.

It was only after she was jailed that she received help from the national charity, Women in Prison. She underwent counselling to help address the underlying issues that led to her offending, and was referred to a drugs rehabilitation programme.

Since her release, she has enrolled on a course and is training to be a counsellor herself, but campaigners say she is the kind of woman who should never have been jailed in the first place.

In the decade to 2001, the total number of people convicted of crime each year fell by 156,000 to 1.35 million but the number of women convicted rose one per cent to 237,600. In that time, the female prison population has almost trebled, from 1,559 to 4,700.

Most female prisoners have been convicted of non-violent crime, the most common offences being theft and handling of stolen goods, but the number of women convicted of serious crimes has increased. The number of women jailed for burglary rose by 49 per cent in 2002. There was also a sharp rise in convictions for robbery and violence.

The involvement of women in crime has always provoked shock and outrage, especially where violence is involved. Maxine Carr was reviled for her role in the Soham murders, while Rose West and Myra Hindley have become icons of evil.

The increased involvement of young women in violent crime came to the fore in the late 1990s with a series of shocking incidents. In 1999, three girls were given heavy jail sentences for their roles in torturing to death a schizophrenic teenager. Angela Pierce was lured into a Leeds flat, plied with cider, stripped of her jewellery and beaten. Instead of water, her captors gave her disinfectant and then set fire to her hair before the youngest of the girls, 17-year-old Nolene Harker, strangled her with her bare hands.

So what are the reasons behind the increase? Some experts argue that women are merely catching up with men when it comes to crime. Social crimes in particular are on the increase as women's social behaviour changes. Binge drinking, which has risen dramatically over the last few years, is a major factor.

Mike Presdee, reader in criminology at Sunderland University, says: "Obviously if you get binge drinking, you get drunkenness and you get the yobette instead of the yob. Instead of men urinating in the shop doorway, it's women as well.

"There is a much greater visibility of women on the streets of most towns. It's a national phenomenon but we're particularly good at it up here in the North-East. Not far from my office I walked between two groups of women throwing bottles of Bacardi Breezers at each other. That sort of behaviour is a fairly common sight now."

He adds: "Women are getting more independence and taking their rightful place in society beside men when it comes to work and money. The other bits come with it as well, and that includes crime."

A recent report by the Commission on Women and the Criminal Justice System, set up by the Fawcett Society and headed by Redcar MP Vera Baird, suggests that the reasons are more complex. The commission argues that women are turning to crime because they have been brutalised by violence against them.

According to the report, some are forced into drug dealing by abusive partners while others have a history of violence against them. Half of women prisoners say they have been hit by a partner and one third say they have suffered sexual abuse.

A recent Home Office study found that 66 per cent of female prisoners were either drug dependent or reported harmful levels of drinking, while foreign national women account for the largest rise in the prison population, particularly those working as drugs mules.

Mrs Baird, a criminal barrister, says that women turn to crime for different reasons from men and that the criminal justice system is failing to address this. Women are being "shoe-horned" into a system that simply wasn't designed with them in mind.

"The number of women in prison has gone up dramatically in the last ten years - something like a 40 per cent increase - and it's interesting to work out why. It isn't because there's a female crime wave," she says.

The overwhelming majority of women who commit crime do so for poverty-related reasons, taking up shop lifting, cheque kiting and pick pocketing.

The courts often recognise that these women need help. They know most would find it difficult to pay a fine and put them on probation instead, but that often exacerbates the situation.

Mrs Baird says: "It's a very good instinct from the court but it places women too high up the sentencing ladder. Probation is the easiest way of getting them support but it's regarded as more serious than a fine. There are very strict rules about what happens if you are in breach of your probation order and these women often very quickly find themselves in prison."

There are concerns about the large number of women who commit crimes under pressure from their partners. Many of them have histories of mental illness or abuse, either as children or adults. Often, the courts fail to take account of this and women find themselves in jail when they should be receiving help.

The prison system is designed for men, who still make up more than 80 per cent of the prison population, leaving vulnerable female prisoners without the support they need. Because there are fewer women's prisons, they often find themselves hundreds of miles from home and their children which has a knock-on effect on the next generation.

Mrs Baird says: "There is now a more holistic approach, taking into account things like deprivation and violence but too many women are still being. There are lots of options available now for sentencing and our key message is, 'Stop sending women to prison'."