FEMALE DELINQUENT THEORY
Who is the typical female delinquent? What causes her to get into trouble? What happens to her if she is caught? These are questions that few members of the general public could answer quickly. By contrast, almost every citizen can talk about "delinquency," by which they generally mean male delinquency, and can even generate some fairly specific complaints about, for example, the failure of the juvenile justice system to deal with such problems as "the alarming increase in the rate of serious juvenile crime" and the fact that the juvenile courts are too lenient on juveniles found guilty of these offenses. This situation should come as no surprise since even the academic study of delinquent behavior has, for all intents and purposes, been the study of male delinquency. "The delinquent is a rogue male" stated by Albert Cohen in his influential book on gang delinquency. A decade later, Travis Hirschi, with his equally important book entitled The Causes of Delinquency, regulated women and suggested in a somewhat apologetic manner that "in analysis that follows, the 'non-Negro' becomes 'white,' and the girls disappear." This pattern of neglect is not all that unusual. All areas of social inquiry have been notoriously gender
However, self-reported studies of male and female delinquency do not reflect the dramatic differences in misbehavior found in official statistics. " Studies that take from youth themselves the volume of their delinquent behavior consistently suggests that large numbers of adolescents engage in at least "some form of misbehavior" that could result in their arrest. In contrast, 81% admitted to having used alcohol, 44% admitted to having used marijuana, 37% admitted to having been publicly drunk, 42% admitted to having skipped classes, 44% admitted having sexual intercourse, and 15% admitted to having stolen from their families. " And the intention of this was to hold girls until a marriageable age and to occupy them in domestic pursuits during their incarcerations. It appears that girls charged with these non-criminal status offenses have been and continue to be significantly "over-represented in court population. Specifically, it is incorrect to assume that because girls are charged with less serious crimes, they actually have "few problems and are treated gently" when they are drawn into the juvenile justice system. These kinds of results suggest that youthful female misbehavior has traditionally been subject to surveillance for evidence of sexual misconduct. It has also been shown through interviews with runaways that these girls do not have an attachment to their delinquent activities, and interestingly enough many are angry about being labeled "delinquent" even though they engaged in illegal acts. A study in Arizona also found that youths charged with running away, truancy, or listed as missing persons were victims of incest. 4% overrepresentation of females among those arrested for runaway and a 30. " With the concept of female gangs, Thrasher mentions two factors he felt accounted for the lower number of girl gangs: "First, the social patterns for the behavior of girls, powerfully backed by the great weight of tradition and custom, are contrary to the gang and its activities; and secondly, girls, even in urban disorganized areas, are much more closely supervised and guarded than boys and usually well incorporated into the family groups or some other social structure. In addition, the fact that young girls are defined as "sexually desirable" than their older sisters due to the double standard of aging means that their lives on the streets take on a unique shape-one shaped by "patriarchal values. In Milwaukee, twice as many girls as boys were committed to training schools; and in Memphis females were twice as likely as males to be committed to training schools. Specifically, delinquent behavior involves a range of activities far broader than those committed by the "stereotypical" street gang.
Common topics in this essay:
Causes Delinquency,
Linda Hancock's,
Delinquency Theory,
Susan Anthony,
Teilmann Landry,
,
Progressive Movement,
status offenses,
Dependent Children,
delinquent behavior,
Albert Cohen,
female delinquency,
juvenile justice,
justice system,
juvenile justice system,
Travis Hirschi,
training schools,
committed training schools,
girls arrested,
female misbehavior,
self-reported delinquency,
referred court,
male female delinquency,
non-criminal status offenses,
boys referred court,
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Acceptance Essays
