Girls' Crime and Woman's Place: Toward a Feminist Model of Female Delinquency

This article argues that existing delinquency theories are fundamentally inadequate to the task of explaining female delinquency and official reactions to girls' deviance. To establish this, the article first reviews the degree of the androcentric bias in the major theories of delinquent behavior. Then the need for a feminist model of female delinquency is explored by reviewing the available evidence on girls' offending. This review shows that the extensive focus on disadvantaged males in public settings has meant that girls' victimization and the relationship between that experience and girls' crime has been systematically ignored. Also missed has been the central role played by the juvenile justice system in the sexualization of female delinquency and the criminalization of girls' survival strategies. Finally, it will be suggested that the official actions of the juvenile justice system should be understood as major forces in women's oppression as they have historically served to reinforce the obedience of all young women to the demands of patriarchal authority no matter how abusive and arbitrary.

[1]  Clifford R. Shaw.  The jack-roller , 1951 .

[2]  J. Herman,et al.  Father-Daughter Incest. , 1982 .

[3]  Meda Chesney‐Lind,et al.  Women Under Lock and Key: A View from the Inside , 1983 .

[4]  J. Messerschmidt,et al.  Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Crime: Toward a Socialist Feminist Criminology , 1986 .

[5]  S. Schlossman,et al.  The Crime of Precocious Sexuality: Female Juvenile Delinquency in the Progressive Era , 1978 .

[6]  C. Kopp,et al.  Becoming female : perspectives on development , 1979 .

[7]  Walter B. Miller,et al.  Lower Class Culture As a Generating Milieu of Gang Delinquency , 1991 .

[8]  C. Widom.  CHILD ABUSE, NEGLECT, AND VIOLENT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR* , 1989 .

[9]  J. Figueira-Mcdonough.  Are girls different? Gender discrepancies between delinquent behavior and control. , 1985, Child welfare.

[10]  R. Canter.  Sex Differences in Self‐Report Delinquency , 1982 .

[11]  M. Aickin,et al.  Offense Specialization and Escalation Among Status Offenders , 1984 .

[12]  Richard E. Johnson,et al.  Comparing Female and Male Offenders. , 1983 .

[13]  R. J. Hunner,et al.  Exploring the relationship between child abuse and delinquency , 1981 .

[14]  L. Hancock.  The Myth that Females Are Treated more Leniently than Males in the Juvenile Justice System , 1980 .

[15]  A. Gillis,et al.  Class in the Household: A Power-Control Theory of Gender and Delinquency , 1987, American Journal of Sociology.

[16]  J. Gora.  The new female criminal: Empirical reality or social myth? , 1984 .

[17]  Clarice Feinman.  Women in the criminal justice system , 1980 .

[18]  D. Finkelhor.  Sexual abuse: a sociological perspective. , 1982, Child abuse & neglect.

[19]  R. Chilton,et al.  Gender, Race, and Crime: , 1987 .

[20]  G. Lerner.  The Creation of Patriarchy , 1986 .

[21]  A. Burgess,et al.  Runaway youths and sexual victimization: gender differences in an adolescent runaway population. , 1986, Child abuse & neglect.

[22]  A. D. De Jong,et al.  Epidemiologic variations in childhood sexual abuse. , 1983, Child abuse & neglect.

[23]  J. Freeman,et al.  Women: A Feminist Perspective. , 1976 .

[24]  D. Steffensmeier.  Sex Differences in Patterns of Adult Crime, 1965–77: A Review and Assessment , 1980 .

[25]  P. Katz.  The Development of Female Identity. , 1979 .

[26]  R. Simons,et al.  Contemporary Theories of Deviance and Female Delinquency: an Empirical Test , 1980 .

[27]  Lloyd E. Ohlin,et al.  Delinquency And Opportunity , 1960 .

[28]  K. Rogers.  "For Her Own Protection . . .": Conditions of Incarceration for Female Juvenile Offenders in the State of Connecticut , 1972 .

[29]  C. Smart,et al.  Women, sexuality, and social control , 1978 .

[30]  H. D. McKay,et al.  Brothers in Crime. , 1939 .

[31]  Pierre H. Landry,et al.  Gender Bias in Juvenile Justice , 1981 .

[32]  D. Finkelhor,et al.  Risk Factors for Child Sexual Abuse , 1986 .

[33]  R. R. Morris.  Female Delinquency and Relational Problems , 1964 .

[34]  Meda Chesney‐Lind.  "Women and Crime": The Female Offender , 1986, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

[35]  Carl E. Pope,et al.  Gender Bias in Juvenile Court Dispositions , 1983 .

[36]  R. Merton.  Social Structure and Anomie , 1938 .

[37]  A. R. Harris.  Sex and Theories of Deviance: Toward a Functional Theory of Deviant Type-Scripts , 1977 .

[38]  Josefina Fiqueira-McDonough.  School context, gender, and delinquency , 1986, Journal of youth and adolescence.

[39]  Suzanne S. Ageton.  The Dynamics of Female Delinquency, 1976-1980 , 1983 .

[40]  R. Horowitz,et al.  The Girls in the Gang. , 1986 .

[41]  A. Pines,et al.  Sexual child abuse as an antecedent to prostitution , 1981 .

[42]  A. Gillis,et al.  The Class Structure of Gender and Delinquency: Toward a Power-Control Theory of Common Delinquent Behavior , 1985, American Journal of Sociology.

[43]  A. Cohen,et al.  Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang , 1971 .

[44]  J. Reich,et al.  Escape/Aggression Incidence in Sexually Abused Juvenile Delinquents , 1979 .

[45]  The Secret Trauma: Incest In The Lives Of Girls And Women , 1987 .

[46]  J. Messerschmidt.  Feminism, criminology and the rise of the female sex ‘delinquent’, 1880–1930 , 1987 .

[47]  L. Bowker,et al.  Women, crime, and the criminal justice system , 1978 .

[48]  D Finkelhor,et al.  Impact of child sexual abuse: a review of the research. , 1986, Psychological bulletin.