Court tries more female defendants in last year

Shanghai's Jing'an District People's Court sentenced 35.7 percent more female defendants from January to May this year than it did over the same period in 2012, with the majority of them in court on drug or theft charges, the court said Monday.

The increase was part of a growing trend. From June 2012 to May 2013, the Jing'an court saw a 73-percent annual increase in the number of convictions involving female defendants, according to a press release from the court.

The court sentenced 104 women over the 12-month period.

In cases with female defendants, drug offenses accounted for 25 percent of the total. Most were charged with dealing drugs, said Li Hongguang, a press officer for the Jing'an District People's Court.

The court dealt with seven drug cases involving female defendants in May, Li said.

In five of the cases, the defendants were charged with dealing drugs, according to the press release.

The cases all involved young defendants carrying a relatively small amount of drugs, which allowed most of them to receive light jail sentences, Li told the Global Times.

Most of the women who end up charged in the court are from other provinces.

Of the seven drug cases the court heard in May, five cases involved women born in 1980 and five cases involved women from other parts of the Chinese mainland.

The most common kinds of illegal drugs sold in Shanghai are methamphetamines, heroin and nimetazepam.