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.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adams-Tucker, Christine
. 1982. “Proximate Effects of Sexual Abuse in Childhood.”American Journal of Psychiatry193: 1252-1256.
2.
Ageton, Suzanne S.1983. “The Dynamics of Female Delinquency, 1976-1980.”Criminology21:555-584.
3.
Bell, Inge Powell
. 1984. “The Double Standard: Age.” In Women: A Feminist Perspective, edited by Jo Freeman. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield.
4.
Black, T. Edwin
and Charles P. Smith. 1981. A Preliminary National Assessment of the Number and Characteristics of Juveniles Processed in the Juvenile Justice System. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
5.
Browne, Angela
and David Finkelhor. 1986. “Impact of Child Sexual Abuse: A Review of Research.”Psychological Bulletin99:66-77.
6.
Campagna, Daniel S.
and Donald L. Poffenberger. 1988. The Sexual Trafficking in Children. Dover, DE: Auburn House.
7.
Campbell, Ann
. 1984. The Girls in the Gang. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
8.
Canter, Rachelle J.1982. “Sex Differences in Self-Report Delinquency.”Criminology20:373-393.
9.
Chesney-Lind, Meda. 1971. Female Juvenile Delinquency in Hawaii. Master's thesis, University of Hawaii.
10.
Chesney-Lind, Meda
. 1973. “Judicial Enforcement of the Female Sex Role.”Issues in Criminology3:51-71.
11.
Chesney-Lind, Meda
. 1978. “Young Women in the Arms of the Law.” In Women, Crime and the Criminal Justice System, edited by Lee H. Bowker. Boston: Lexington.
12.
Chesney-Lind, Meda
. 1986. “Women and Crime: The Female Offender.”Signs12:78-96.
13.
Chesney-Lind, Meda
. 1988. “Girls and Deinstitutionalization: Is Juvenile Justice Still Sexist?”Journal of Criminal Justice Abstracts20:144-165.
14.
Chesney-Lind, Meda
. and Noelie Rodriguez. 1983. “Women Under Lock and Key.”Prison Journal63:47-65.
15.
Children's Bureau, Department of Health, Education and Welfare
. 1965. 1964 Statistics on Public Institutions for Delinquent Children. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
16.
Chilton, Roland
and Susan K. Datesman. 1987. “Gender, Race and Crime: An Analysis of Urban Arrest Trends, 1960-1980.”Gender and Society1:152-171.
17.
Cloward, Richard A.
and Lloyd E. Ohlin. 1960. Delinquency and Opportunity. New York: Free Press.
18.
Cohen, Albert K.
1955. Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang. New York: Free Press.
19.
Datesman, Susan
and Mikel Aickin. 1984. “Offense Specialization and Escalation Among Status Offenders.”Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology75: 1246-1275.
20.
Davidson, Sue
, ed. 1982. Justice for Young Women. Tucson, AZ: New Directions for Young Women.
21.
DeJong, Allan R.
, Arturo R. Hervada, and Gary A. Emmett. 1983. “Epidemiologic Variations in Childhood Sexual Abuse.”Child Abuse and Neglect7:155-162.
22.
Elliott, Delbert
, David Huizinga, and Barbara Morse. 1987. “A Career Analysis of Serious Violent Offenders.” In Violent Juvenile Crime: What Can We Do About It? edited by Ira Schwartz. Minneapolis, MN: Hubert Humphrey Institute.
23.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
. 1987. Crime in the United States 1986. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
24.
Feinman, Clarice
. 1980. Women in the Criminal Justice System. New York: Praeger.
25.
Figueira-McDonough, Josefina
. 1985. “Are Girls Different? Gender Discrepancies Between Delinquent Behavior and Control.”Child Welfare64:273-289.
26.
Figueira-McDonough, Josefina
. 1986. “School Context, Gender, and Delinquency.”Journal of Youth and Adolescence15:79-98.
27.
Finkelhor, David
. 1982. “Sexual Abuse: A Sociological Perspective.”Child Abuse and Neglect6:95-102.
28.
Finkelhor, David
. and Larry Baron. 1986. “Risk Factors for Child Sexual Abuse.”Journal of Interpersonal Violence1:43-71.
29.
Freedman, Estelle
. 1981. Their Sisters' Keepers. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
30.
Gelsthorpe, Loraine
. 1986. “Towards a Sceptical Look at Sexism.”International Journal of the Sociology of Law14:125-152.
31.
Gora, JoAnn
. 1982. The New Female Criminal: Empirical Reality or Social Myth. New York: Praeger.
32.
Hagan, John
, A. R. Gillis, and John Simpson. 1985. “The Class Structure of Gender and Delinquency: Toward a Power-Control Theory of Common Delinquent Behavior.”American Journal of Sociology90:1151-1178.
33.
Hagan, John
, John Simpson, and A. R. Gillis. 1987. “Class in the Household: A Power-Control Theory of Gender and Delinquency.”American Journal of Sociology92: 788-816.
34.
Hancock, Linda
. 1981. “The Myth that Females are Treated More Leniently than Males in the Juvenile Justice System.”Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology16:4-14.
35.
Harris, Anthony
. 1977. “Sex and Theories of Deviance.”American Sociological Review42:3-16.
36.
Herman, Julia L.
1981. Father-Daughter Incest. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37.
Katz, Phyllis A.
1979. “The Development of Female Identity.” In Becoming Female: Perspectives on Development, edited by Claire B. Kopp. New York: Plenum.
38.
Koroki, Jan
and Meda Chesney-Lind. 1985. Everything Just Going Down the Drain. Hawaii: Youth Development and Research Center.
39.
Lerner, Gerda
. 1986. The Creation of Patriarchy. New York: Oxford.
40.
McCormack, Arlene
, Mark-David Janus, and Ann Wolbert Burgess. 1986. “Runaway Youths and Sexual Victimization: Gender Differences in an Adolescent Runaway Population.”Child Abuse and Neglect10:387-395.
41.
McGarrell, Edmund F.
and Timothy J. Flanagan, eds. 1985. Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics—1984. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
42.
Meiselman, Karen
. 1978. Incest. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
43.
Merton, Robert K.1938. “Social Structure and Anomie.”American Sociological Review3(October):672-682.
44.
Messerschmidt, James
. 1986. Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Crime: Toward a Socialist Feminist Criminology. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield.
45.
Messerschmidt, James
. 1987. “Feminism, Criminology, and the Rise of the Female Sex Delinquent, 1880-1930.”Contemporary Crises11:243-263.
46.
Miller, Eleanor
. 1986. Street Woman. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
47.
Miller, Walter B.1958. “Lower Class Culture as the Generating Milieu of Gang Delinquency.”Journal of Social Issues14:5-19.
48.
Morris, Ruth
. 1964. “Female Delinquency and Relational Problems.”Social Forces43:82-89.
49.
Mouzakitas, C. M.
1981. “An Inquiry into the Problem of Child Abuse and Juvenile Delinquency.” In Exploring the Relationship Between Child Abuse and Delinquency, edited by R. J. Hunner and Y. E. Walkers. Montclair, NJ: Allanheld, Osmun.
50.
National Female Advocacy Project
. 1981. Young Women and the Justice System: Basic Facts and Issues. Tucson, AZ: New Directions for Young Women.
51.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
. 1985. Runaway Children and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act: What is the Impact?Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
52.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
. 1986. America's Missing and Exploited Children. Report and Recommendations of the U.S. Attorney General's Advisory Board on Missing Children. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
53.
Opinion Research Corporation
. 1982. “Public Attitudes Toward Youth Crime: National Public Opinion Poll.” Mimeographed. Minnesota: Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.
54.
Peacock, Carol
. 1981. Hand Me Down Dreams. New York: Schocken.
55.
Phelps, R. J.et al.
1982. Wisconsin Female Juvenile Offender Study Project Summary Report. Wisconsin: Youth Policy and Law Center, Wisconsin Council on Juvenile Justice.
56.
Platt, Anthony M.
1969. The Childsavers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
57.
Pope, Carl
and William H. Feyerherm. 1982. “Gender Bias in Juvenile Court Dispositions.”Social Service Review6:1-17.
Reich, J. W.
and S. E. Gutierres. 1979. “Escape/Aggression Incidence in Sexually Abused Juvenile Delinquents.”Criminal Justice and Behavior6:239-243.
60.
Rogers, Kristine
. 1972. “For Her Own Protection...': Conditions of Incarceration for Female Juvenile Offenders in the State of Connecticut.”Law and Society Review (Winter):223-246.
61.
Rosenberg, Debby
and Carol Zimmerman. 1977. Are My Dreams Too Much To Ask For?Tucson, AZ: New Directions for Young Women.
62.
Russell, Diana E.
1986. The Secret Trauma: Incest in the Lives of Girls and Women. New York: Basic Books.
63.
Schlossman, Steven
and Stephanie Wallach. 1978. “The Crime of Precocious Sexuality: Female Juvenile Delinquency in the Progressive Era.”Harvard Educational Review48:65-94.
64.
Shaw, Clifford R.
1930. The Jack-Roller. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
65.
Shaw, Clifford R.
1938. Brothers in Crime. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
66.
Shaw, Clifford R.
and Henry D. McKay. 1942. Juvenile Delinquency in Urban Areas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
67.
Shelden, Randall
. 1981. “Sex Discrimination in the Juvenile Justice System: Memphis, Tennessee, 1900-1917.” In Comparing Female and Male Offenders, edited by Marguerite Q. Warren. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
68.
Shelden, Randall
. and John Horvath. 1986. “Processing Offenders in a Juvenile Court: A Comparison of Males and Females.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Society of Criminology, Newport Beach, CA, February 27-March 2.
69.
Silbert, Mimi
and Ayala M. Pines. 1981. “Sexual Child Abuse as an Antecedent to Prostitution.”Child Abuse and Neglect5:407-411.
70.
Simons, Ronald L.
, Martin G. Miller, and Stephen M. Aigner. 1980. “Contemporary Theories of Deviance and Female Delinquency: An Empirical Test.”Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency17:42-57.
71.
Smith, Lesley Shacklady
. 1978. “Sexist Assumptions and Female Delinquency.” In Women, Sexuality and Social Control, edited by Carol Smart and Barry Smart. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
72.
Snyder, Howard N.
and Terrence A. Finnegan. 1987. Delinquency in the United States. Washington, DC: Department of Justice.
73.
Steffensmeier, Darrell J.1980. “Sex Differences in Patterns of Adult Crime, 1965-1977.”Social Forces58:1080-1109.
74.
Sutherland, Edwin
. 1978. “Differential Association.” In Children of Ishmael: Critical Perspectives on Juvenile Justice, edited by Barry Krisberg and James Austin. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield.
75.
Teilmann, Katherine S.
and Pierre H. Landry, Jr.1981. “Gender Bias in Juvenile Justice.”Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency18:47-80.
76.
Thrasher, Frederic M.
1927. The Gang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
77.
Tracy, Paul E.
, Marvin E. Wolfgang, and Robert M. Figlio. 1985. Delinquency in Two Birth Cohorts: Executive Summary. Washington, DC: Department of Justice.
