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Social Correlates of Delinquency

Social Correlates of Delinquency. Gender. Our Knowledge Gap on Gender and Delinquency. It is commonly believed that girls engage primarily in status offenses; boys in more serious delinquent offenses Issue of female delinquency did not receive much scholarly attention until the 1960’s

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Social Correlates of Delinquency

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  1. Social Correlates of Delinquency Gender

  2. Our Knowledge Gap on Gender and Delinquency • It is commonly believed that girls engage primarily in status offenses; boys in more serious delinquent offenses • Issue of female delinquency did not receive much scholarly attention until the 1960’s • Most of the classical theories, therefore, are based on observations of male delinquency and may not be as appropriate to females

  3. Nature and Extent of Male and Female Delinquency

  4. Mr.StreetmanJason1102 - 280 BypassPhenix CityAL36867Charles BradshawFall, 1999Nature and Extent of Male and Female Delinquency

  5. Nature and Extent of Male and Female Delinquency

  6. Explaining Female (vs. male) Delinquency Two Broad Categories of Explanations • “Trait” Views • Center on intrinsic biological and mental traits attributed to being “female” or “male” • Sociological Explanations • Focus on different social experiences boys and girls

  7. “Trait” Explanations for Female Delinquency • Lombroso--The Female Offender • Women are lower on the evolutionary scale • Pollack--The Criminality of Women • Onset of criminality linked to menstruation, pregnancy and menopause • Chivalry Hypothesis accounts for lower rates of female delinquency • Freud--Penis Envy • Lack of penis unconscious sign of punishment, resulting in inferiority complex • Failure to resolve penis envy might result in crime • Gluecks--Precocious Sexuality • Early sexual experimentation by girls results in later delinquency • Hormonal Explanations • Testosterone Levels • Pre-Menstrual Syndrome

  8. Sociological Explanations for Female Delinquency • Differential Supervision of boys and girls • Quality of parental relations • Feminist explanations • Hagan’s “power-control” theory • Societal Reaction explanations

  9. Changing Gender Patterns • Over the past 30 years, the gender gap in delinquency has been gradually converging • From 1990-1994: • male arrest rate increased by 19%, while female rate increased by 31% • male arrest rate for serious violent crime increased by 23%, while female rate increased by 48% • Self-report data also suggesting that females are engaging in more typically “male” offenses

  10. Explaining Changing Gender Patterns • Freda Adler--Sisters in Crime • focus on impact of women’s liberation • Rita Simon--The Contemporary Woman and Crime • focus on changing sex roles • Joseph Weis • focus on changing school influences • Differential societal reaction

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