This article discusses the findings from a survey of 14-16 year olds made subject to a supervision order in 1978. The social enquiry reports and case files of 241 girls and 971 boys reveal a number of noticeable differences between the sexes in the imposition of this particular sentence. Girls are made subject to an order for less serious offences than committed by boys, after having been involved in fewer previous misdemeanours and for having committed fewer current offences. Taken together, the data would appear to point to a degree of discrimination in the administration of juvenile justice.
This pattern is set within the contexts of the supervision order being a disposal of wide and often unspecified remit and can thereby be readily interpreted by both sentencers and social workers or probation officers as extending general superintendence to wayward youngsters. Because troublesome girls are viewed as exceptional delinquents, they are vulnerable to a greater degree of control and regulation `for their own good' than are boys. Whilst ideas of welfare that are enshrined in legislation directed at young offenders have a benign objective, an emphasis upon `needs' can be variously interpreted meaning that everyday typifications become expressed in the penological regulation of delinquent girls.
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