Recent work illustrates that early childhood victimization and oppressive neighborhood dynamics predict female offending. Revised strain theory is used to illuminate how such early experiences lead White and minority women to initial involvement in crime. Moreover, another developmental perspective, the life course theory, explains how similar adult experiences may lead women toward ongoing persistence or desistance. Using Waves 1 and 7 of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, findings reveal that early childhood victimization, adult racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, and having been a victim of domestic violence explain women's involvement in crime and deviance, whereas desistance processes remain largely unidentified.
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