Gender and Delinquency

In 1994 adult women constituted 6 % of prison inmates (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1995:8)

18% Juveniles in custody in juvenile correctional facilities are female

Availability of Facilities determines the rate of arrests.

Structure your answer:  

To be incarcerated one has to

1.be accused

2.taken into custody (arrested)

3.not released after taken into custody

4.dispositioned (sentenced)

I. Who commits the crimes?

Self reports 

To what extend do males commit more crimes?

Self reports versus incarceration

Running away is a status offence that is more frequently encountered by females than by males.

Question: Do females tend to run away more often than males?

3. Second Stage of police Processing: Who is more likely to be released

""The police is far more likely to release a boy than a girl suspected of committing a crime" (p.162).

• There are many explanations why females become delinquent.
• There are some explanations why the proportion of females rose a little within the last years.
• Besides the Chivalry Hypothesis, there is hardly any hint why females are severely under represented in treatment (detention) centers.

Just an Overview of ideas promoted in your textbook (Frankly, I do not know which one is worst)

1. Moderate Feminists

• Females are less delinquent than males because their social roles provide fewer opportunities to commit crime.
• With more equality females have more opportunities to strive for criminal statuses.
• Serious female crime correlates with indicators of female emancipation.

A) Sexual abuse causes females to be criminal

Meda Chesney-Lind: Females become criminal because of sexual abuse in the home.

In adult prisons 31% of the women were abused before age 18, 24% later in life. More than 50% of the women were abused.

B) The women’s movement liberated the girls. Now they are more similar to boys in committing crimes.

3. Power control theory

Two types of families:

A) traditional paternalistic

B) egalitarian families

4. Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)

Females are antisocial before and during menstruation. PMS is the cause for criminal activity of females. (an idea portrait in your textbook, not promoted by me)

Check the papers of the Society and the Person Class Fall 1997.

http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/Schneider/4311/PMS/pms.htm

5. Freud: Penis envy

Penis envy produces an inferiority complex.

Can we really take this theory serious?

6. Lombroso

Delinquent girls have excessive male characteristics.

More modern: hormonal problems.

What do we conclude from this?