Making Sense of Intersections (From Gender and Crime: Patterns in Victimization and Offending, P 269-302, 2006, Karen Heimer and Candace Kruttschnitt, eds., -- See NCJ-214516)

• NCJ Number: 214526
• Author(s): Sally S. Simpson; Carole Gibbs
• Date Published: 2006
• Length: 34 pages
• Sale Source: New York University Press
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined whether four general theories of delinquency--strain, low self-control, social learning, and control theories--explained juvenile offending better than an intersectional model that accounted for how gender, race, and class impact delinquency.

Abstract

Overall, the findings suggest that the intersectional (class, gender, race) breakdown analysis provided a better fit to the data than the pooled sample across the four gender-neutral theories. Results of the quantitative analysis of each theory demonstrated significant differences in delinquency based on gender, race, and class, suggesting that the four so-called gender-neutral theories could account for how these factors might impact delinquency. However, the analysis also revealed factors that differed across these groups, suggesting limitations within the four general theories of delinquency. For example, having multiple sex partners was a better predictor of delinquency among the higher social classes than among the disenfranchised, but self-control theory could not explain why. Similarly, mother’s social control was a stronger crime inhibitor for Blacks than for Whites, which was better explained by intersectional models than by control theory. The findings suggest that quantitative analysis is an effective tool for detecting intersectional differences resulting from gender, class, and race and can support feminist assertions that general theories of delinquency are less universal than their proponents claim. Data were drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and concentrated on the responses provided by the 2,716 males and females aged 15 to 16 years who responded to wave 1 and wave 2 interviews. The analysis focused on delinquent acts committed between the first and second interview and included factors relevant to the four theories under examination. Control variables included age, urban area, and prior delinquency. Statistical analysis of the data included the calculation of chi-square estimates to test the overall model fit. Appendix, tables, notes