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

• NCJ Number: 111532
• Author(s): M Chesney-Lind
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 28 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology Meetings, Montreal, Canada, November 10-14, 1987. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 25th semiannual meeting of the Association for Criminal Justice Research (California), April 23-24, 1987.

Annotation

The extensive focus on male delinquency and the inattention to the role played by patriarchal arrangements in the generation of adolescent delinquency and conformity in all major delinquency theories has made them inadequate to explain female adolescent behavior.

Abstract

To establish this theory, this paper first reviews the degree of androcentric bias in existing delinquency theories, and then the need for a feminist model of female delinquency is advanced through an analysis of the available evidence on girls' offending. The discussion establishes that the proposed overhaul of delinquency theory is not simply an academic exercise. It is incorrect to assume that because girls are charged with less serious offenses that they have few problems and are treated gently by the juvenile justice system. The extensive focus on disadvantaged males in public settings has meant the girls' victimization and the relationship between that experience and girls' crime has been systematically ignored. The central role of the juvenile justice system in the sexualization of female delinquency and the criminalization of girls' survival strategies has also been overlooked. The juvenile justice system's official actions are major forces in girls' oppression, as they have reinforced all young women's obedience to partriarchal authority, no matter how abusive and arbitrary. 53 references and 2 tables. (Author abstract modified)