NCJ Number
191998
Journal
Criminology Volume: 39 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2001 Pages: 893-932
Date Published
November 2001
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This study reanalyzed data from a study on gender and delinquency, based on a concept of gender as social practices and the use of those practices as the unit of analysis.
Abstract
The participants included 40 brothers and sisters of 29 teenagers from the Sacramento, CA, area incarcerated by the California Youth Authority. Additional information came from interviews with the juvenile offenders, agency files, and informal visits with the families in their homes. Results revealed six social practices that intertwined with delinquent activities, constraining female juvenile delinquency while enabling and rewarding male juvenile delinquency. The three categories of social practices included making friends and having fun, relating sexually and becoming parents, and surviving hardship and having purpose. Only a few differences emerged among three ethnic groups white, Black, and Hispanic. Findings suggested that the relevant dimensions of gender as a correlate of delinquency included male dominance, differences in routine daily activities, variations in sexual interests and transition to adulthood, and an ideology defining crime as a male activity and childcare as a female activity. The analysis concluded that the study supported and helped explain some earlier study findings and questioned others, demonstrated the usefulness of conceptualizing gender as a process of social life, and of using the social practices of gender as a unit of analysis. Footnotes, appended table, and 60 references (Author abstract modified)