One of the most important issues in crime today is Juvenile Delinquency. It is too often the cause that people see it as something new and a problem that needs to be dealt with by todays society. Female delinquency is and has been rapidly increasing in the past few years. In Girls, Delinquency, and Juvenile Justice, Lind and Shelden give an overview of juvenile delinquency among females. To fully understand the question of who, where, when, how, and why females are delinquent, it is necessary to first understand the nature of female delinquency.
To comprehend the entire study of female delinquency, it is also imperative to ecome acquainted with the theories why females commit such delinquencies and crimes. Also, to understand the way of life and the delinquent acts of females. Females are also involved in the subculture of gangs. And what happens when these females become part of the juvenile justice system? When females are arrested for their involvement of delinquent acts they enter the justice system, but what are the courts doing to endure that these young women receive the appropriate sentencing? If sent to a detention center exactly where are they going and what goes on there?
Lind and Shelden interviewed a sample of incarcerated females about their xperience as female delinquents. An overview of the study of female delinquency will be discussed using the works of Lind and Shelden as a secondary source data and it will conclude whether females that have been part of the justice system are now integrated into our society as law-abiding citizens. Society often overlooks at the reasons why young females commit crimes and delinquent acts. It is necessary that we take a look at the nature of female delinquency to better understand what has driven these young women to commit delinquent acts.
The majority of girls that become delinquent are shaped by roblems that they face in todays society. Such problems include, little power given to women, few jobs options, and fewer civil rights in comparison to men, and not to mention the root of the problem which in most cases is their home. The majority of these females come from low-income and broken homes where they are often raised The most common type of crimes committed by female delinquents is larceny-theft, better known as shoplifting.
According to Morris, females are more often detected by store personnel because it is excepted that women tend to shoplift more than men, and therefore are watched more closely. An explanation for shoplifting (Morris) is a subconscious motives (kleptomania), depression or poverty. Temptation is another reason why girls shoplift, they believe that popularity is tied with physical appearance and the participation in fashion and fads. This is especially true in teenage girls from poor families because these teens feel that they need to be part of the teenage subculture in order to fit in at school and among their peers.
The status offenses that are most committed by young females are running away and curfew violations, but with these minor acts come major consequences hich sometimes it includes prostitution. Statistics estimate that over one million youths under the age of eighteen run away from homes each year and an estimated million leave by mutual consent or are throwaways (Roberts, 1987:xi). Most of the youths that run away remain within ten miles from home and at least sixty-percent return home within three days. Some of the reasons why these females leave their home is in flight from sexual victimization that occurs in the home.
Other run away girls leave their home because they are rebellious and are often drop-outs hat tend to be angry and they are alienated from their parents. An estimated 600,000 prostitute girls are under the age of sixteen and they majority of these girls have been run aways. The abuse of these girls often continues from abusive pimps Theories of female delinquency date back to the first scholarly father of criminology Caesar Lombroso. According to Lombroso, all criminal behavior could be explained as the behavior of biological throwbacks and criminals were often seen as a less highly evolved normal, law-abiding citizen.
In the works of Lombroso, ne could find a book filled with figures of womens weights, measurement of their lower jaws, brains, eyes, noses, craniums, and hands. Lombroso concluded that females were congenitally less inclined toward crime than males because of their sedentary nature and their biological roles as caretakers of children. But when the female committed a crime, as seen by Lombroso and Ferrero, she was believed to be Other theories that sought to explain the causes of delinquency among women were handicapped by stereotyping the female gender.
A causal effect of their delinquency was played by sexuality. This theme was supported in the works of Thomas, Pollak, the Gluecks, and many others. Other key sociological theories that were reviewed were labeling, differential association, control, and Marxist/critical. These theories suggested that delinquency was an extention of the male masculinity. The most popular theory suggested that there was an increase in female delinquency during the womens movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The lifes and delinquency of girls was another attribute in the study of female delinquency.
To better understand this we must approach this from the view of ociety and how it views women. In the patriarchal society in which we live in the lifes of both boys and girls are gender stratified. During the socialization process most boys and girls learn what is and what is not appropriate for each gender to do or act upon in their surroundings. A womens place is further enforced as the female becomes an adolescent and she learns the dos and dont by parents, school personnel, and others in life.
It was believed that the womens movements was a causal factor in the increase of female delinquency, but research suggests that norms and expectations for girls remains unaltered. In some girls low self-esteem was tied with juvenile delinquency, often this occurs while girls are in the adolescent years in Female involvement in gangs is on the rise, once seen that females only joined gangs to be seen as sex objects, sources of prestige, and hustles to be exploited by boys. On the contrary females join gangs for protection, to get a sense recognition and identity, and to develop and maintain a peer group or friendship network.
As portrayed by the media, that the liberation movement is a key factor in female crime, it is too often that this proves to be false. Especially when it comes to the question why females join gangs. The broken home is often the root of the problem why females end up on the wrong branch of society and they have no choice but to become a member of a gang and have a family (the gang) to accept to her. Once the crime has been committed and the delinquent female has been apprehended by law enforcement she is turned into the hands of the courts and she becomes part of the juvenile justice system.
When a female is taken into custody she is more likely to be released than a boy suspected of commiting the same type of rime, with the exception that the police is more likely to arrest girls on suspicion of sexual offenses. Therefore, girls are more likely than boys to be referred to the courts The roots of the juvenile justice system dates back to the colonial doctrine of parens patriae the ultimate parent referring to the state. When parents have no control over the actions of their children, the court takes their place. The first juvenile courts were established in the United States in 1899 and were described as child savers.
Some not so child savers laws were also enacted during the colonial era, he stubborn child law gave parents the right to kill their children if he or she misbehaved. In the juvenile justice system, females still suffer from discrimination, often the are sentenced to harsher punishments (than boys) when they commit the The sample of girls that were taken for the study by Lind and Shelden was a sample of ten girls that were in a short-term residential treatment program for female juvenile offenders. The age ranged from twelve to seventeen years of age with a highly diverse ethnic group.
The girls came from upper-middle class to lower class amilies. Their offenses ranged from truancy to using and selling drugs. School was no so important to these girls and they had very low ambition to further their education. Overall, these girls came from broken homes with abusive parents and they felt that in order for them to fit in with their clique, they had to commit Programs for girls are widely available so that females that fall in the wrong places in society have the opportunity to get a normal lifestyle. These programs provide the support that the delinquent females need.
For example, basic skills are ften tough to them so that they could survive and perhaps get a college education. Rehabilitation programs are also available for those that are involved in drug use and Having read Girls, Delinquency, and Juvenile Justice I found it very informative in the study of female delinquency and I was able to link it to the previous studies of juvenile delinquency. Many strengths were found throughout the book, among them include the clear comparison of male to female delinquency and the overview of how females are treated when they become part of the justice system (very unfairly).
One eakness I would like to critique is how males were also the scapegoats of the studies, yes it is a fact that males do commit more crimes that females, but I think there needs to be more research on the theories on female delinquency. This book gives a great contribution on the study of juvenile delinquency it clearly surveys all the necessary concepts needed to fully understand female juvenile delinquency. One item I would like to suggest to possible later editions is that the authors have a bibiograhphy at the end of the book instead of having the constant interruptions of citing in between the sentences and paragraphs.