Gender Differences In Delinquency Research Articles

Is a gender-morality or gender-control gap responsible for male-female differences in delinquency? cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses

ABSTRACT This study tested for gender-morality and gender-control gaps that might explain sex differences in crime in a group of 2,718 early adolescent youth (1,309 boys and 1,409 girls; mean age = 12.12 years). Although moral neutralization and cognitive impulsivity were significantly higher in boys than in girls and moral neutralization rose significantly over time, the rise was roughly comparable across gender. Analyses confirmed the presence of a gender-morality gap whereby moral neutralization had an effect on delinquency in boys but not girls, and a gender-control gap where cognitive impulsivity played a role in delinquency for girls but not boys. In a cross-sectional analysis, the partial correlation between gender and moral neutralization, controlling for delinquency, was significantly higher than the partial correlation between gender and delinquency, controlling for moral neutralization, implying that gender differences in moral neutralization are stronger than gender differences in delinquency in early adolescence. In a longitudinal analysis, moral neutralization mediated the relationship between gender and delinquency in a design with proper temporal order between the independent (gender), mediating (moral neutralization), and dependent (delinquency) variables. These findings suggest that weak moral agency may be one of the factors driving the well-known relationship between male gender and antisocial behavior.

Same Routines, Different Effects: Gender, Leisure, and Young Offending

The current study seeks to extend routine activity theory by examining how gender conditions the relationship between leisure activities and adolescent delinquency. Using OLS regression with a sample of high school students from Toronto (n = 2,209), we find that (1) engaging in more unstructured and unsupervised activities with peers is associated with delinquency more strongly for boys than for girls, but is associated with substance use equally across gender; (2) this pattern is likely due to gender differences in the locations or contexts of leisure activities; and (3) prosocial leisure activities are associated with less delinquency only for boys. In general, routine activity theory appears apt at explaining the substance use of boys and girls, but is less capable of explaining the property and violent offending of girls. We discuss our findings and their implications for the growing body of research extending routine activity theory to explain gender differences in delinquency.

Delinkvencinis elgesys ir lyčių skirtumai: situacinio veiksmo teorijos tikrinimas (pagal Tarptautinio jaunimo delinkvencinio elgesio, nuostatų ir viktimizacijos tyrimo (ISRD-3) duomenis)

Šiame straipsnyje, pasitelkiant Tarptautinio jaunimo delinkvencinio elgesio, nuostatų ir viktimizacijos tyrimo (The Third International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-3)1) Lietuvoje duomenis, tiriamos situacinio veiksmo teorijos prielaidos lyties aspektu. Siekiama patikrinti, ar situacinio veiksmo teorijos prielaidos pasitvirtina aiškinant nepilnamečių delinkvencinį elgesį Lietuvoje ir ar šios teorijos prielaidos gali vienodai paaiškinti tiek vaikinų, tiek merginų delinkvencinį elgesį. Gauti tyrimo rezultatai leidžia kalbėti apie tai, kad ne visos situacinio veiksmo teorijos prielaidos buvo patvirtintos, o merginų ir vaikinų delinkvencinį elgesį prognozuoja kiek skirtingi veiksniai.

Gender differences in delinquency at 21 years following childhood maltreatment: A birth cohort study

Childhood maltreatment and youth delinquency are major public health problems. The present study examines the association between exposure to agency substantiated childhood maltreatment from 0 to 14years of age and delinquency at 21years in males and females separately. The study uses data from the Mater Hospital-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy, an Australian pre-birth longitudinal cohort of mothers and their children. Pregnant women were recruited consecutively at their first antenatal clinic visit at Brisbane's Mater Hospital from 1981 to 1983. We linked substantiated cases of childhood maltreatment, reported to the appropriate child protection services between birth and 14years of age, to the 21-year survey follow-up. The study sample comprises 1810 males and 2008 females, who had complete data on delinquency at the 21-year follow-up. The odds of delinquency at the 21-year follow-up were 4–6 times higher for maltreated children in the unadjusted models. In the adjusted models, physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect, as well as emotional abuse with or without neglect were associated with over 3 times a greater risk of delinquency in males. More frequent maltreatment was associated with double the risk of later delinquency in males. However, none of the maltreatment subtypes, nor was the frequency of maltreatment substantiations associated with an increased risk of delinquency in females. Exposure to any childhood maltreatment increased the likelihood of delinquency for males but there was no difference for females. Childhood maltreatment is associated with an increased risk of later delinquency for young adult males, but not females.

Gender Differences in Delinquency and Situational Action Theory: A Partial Test

This paper investigates to what extent a recent perspective in criminology, Situational Action Theory, is valid for both males and females and to what extent elements from the theory explain gender differences in delinquency. Data are used from the first (N = 843) and second (N = 616) wave of the Study of Peers, Activities, and Neighborhoods, which included detailed data about core elements of Situational Action Theory (morality, self-control, unsupervised peer activity and peer deviancy), proposed indirect causes (bonds with parents and school, parental monitoring) and self-reported delinquency. Cross-sectional and lagged Tobit regression analyses show that the core relations with delinquency are not significantly different between boys and girls and that the elements of Situational Action Theory are able to explain gender differences in delinquency for a substantial part. However, there is still a remaining independent effect of gender on current and lagged delinquency.

Gender Differences in Delinquency in Early, Middle, and Late Adolescence: An Exploration of Parent and Friend Relationships

Researchers often examine juvenile delinquency without considering the developmental differences between early, middle, and late adolescence. Much research suggests that relationships with parents and friends differ throughout adolescence; however, no research to date has explored how gender differences in friend and parent relationships throughout the stages of adolescence may affect delinquent involvement. In the current project, I utilize a large sample of adolescents to explore the ways friend and parental relationships differ among young men and women throughout adolescence and how these changing relationships affect gender differences in delinquency. I find that both friend relationships and parent–child bonding affect delinquency and that these relationships differ by both gender and stage of adolescence.

Strain, Self-Control, and Gender Differences in Delinquency among Chinese Adolescents: Extending General Strain Theory

Agnew's general strain theory (GST) and Gottfredson and Hirschi's self-control theory represent significant theoretical developments in sociology of deviance over the last two decades. Both theories offer unique insights into the well-known controversy of gender disparity in crime and delinquency. Incorporating their ideas and testing them in a Chinese context, this study investigates the role of self-control, which has been seldom included in GST assessments, in moderating the strain-delinquency relationship and analyzes whether this conditioning effect varies by gender. Using data from 1,015 Chinese students in Hong Kong, negative binominal regression models found that self-control is a gender-specific conditioning factor of strain. Self-control mitigates the effects of certain strains on delinquency for females only. Yet, unexpectedly, coercive parenting decreases male delinquency and moderates the impact of low self-control in males. The implications of Chinese cultural forces for the perception of strain and the conditioning influence of self-control merit closer attention.

Routine activities as determinants of gender differences in delinquency

This study examined the extent to which gender differences in delinquency can be explained by gender differences in participation in, or response to, various routine activity patterns (RAPs) using data from the second and third waves of the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988. While differential participation in routine activities by gender failed to explain males’ high levels of deviance relative to females, two early RAPs moderated the effect of gender on subsequent deviant behavior. Participation in religious and community activities during the sophomore year in high school decreased, while unstructured and unsupervised peer interaction increased, levels of delinquency two years later substantially more for males than for females, suggesting there are gender differences in reactivity to contextual opportunities for deviance during early high school with effects that persist over time.

Gender and General Strain Theory: The Gendering of Emotional Experiences and Expressions

In their strain theory explanation for the gender gap in delinquency, Broidy and Agnew posit that the joint experience of anger and depression, which is more typical among females than males, should help explain gender differences in delinquency. The authors extend and test their claim using data from a southeastern middle school. Their findings show that females are more likely than males to experience anger and depression concomitantly and that the interaction between anger and depression is important for understanding the gender gap in delinquency. This is not because depression alleviates the impact of anger on delinquency among females, as suggested by gendered strain theory. Instead, depression exacerbates the effect of anger on delinquency among males. This article concludes that the key to understanding links between gender, emotions, and delinquency resides in gendered expressions of emotional responses to stress rather than in gendered experiences of emotions.

Gender variation in delinquent behavior changes of child welfare-involved youth

The number of girls engaging in delinquent behaviors in the U.S. is increasing. While more studies of female delinquency are appearing, such studies specific to the child welfare population are limited. The current research examines youth reported and investigated as maltreated because limited information exists for this high-risk group of youth about gender differences in delinquency, and the factors associated with changes in such behavior. Data were from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW) a national longitudinal probability study of youth reported and investigated as maltreated in the United States. Youth were aged 11 to 15 years at baseline, the time of the initial maltreatment investigation ( n = 1134). Changes in delinquent behavior varied by level of depression and discipline for females and by level of substance use for males. Such differences speak to the possibility of a need for more attention to the different needs of males and females involved with the child welfare system in an effort to prevent and reduce delinquent behaviors.

Gender Differences in Delinquency and Juvenile Justice Processing

This article traces the historical coverage of the gender issue in the criminological literature. It also provides contemporary empirical evidence about differences and similarities between girls and boys with respect to juvenile crime and to processing by the juvenile justice system, by analyzing several national juvenile crime data series, all of which have been recently updated. This research has produced numerous results that indicate that female and male delinquents possess more similarities than differences concerning arrest rates, arrest statistics, juvenile court data, and juvenile corrections data.

Juvenile Delinquency and Gender Revisited

Cross-cultural evidence on the gender gap in delinquency is presented. Based on power-control theory (PCT), gender differences in aggressive behaviour are analysed. We assume that differences in labour force participation between father and mother lead to differences in parental control behaviour towards boys and girls, which in turn lead to different risk-taking preferences and eventually produce gender differences in aggressive behaviour. A revised PCT acknowledges that dominance ideologies also play a role in the genesis of gender differences in delinquency. This proposition is also tested. Analyses are based on data from 319 families (father, mother and two adolescent opposite-sex siblings) from West Berlin, East Berlin and Toronto. The findings support assumptions of PCT but differ substantially between the three cities. Evidence of the link between structural patriarchy and parental style – postulated in the original PCT – is found in East Berlin, whereas the West Berlin and Toronto results fit a modified version of PCT featuring gender-role attitudes (ideological patriarchy).

Delinquency and moral reasoning in adolescence and young adulthood

This article presents a longitudinal-sequential analysis of the developmental and reciprocal relationships between self-reported delinquency and moral reasoning (as measured with the Dutch version of the short form of the Defining Issues Test). Between 1991 and 1997 a large sample of 846 Dutch adolescents and young adults (15–23 years in 1991) was measured three times with an interval period of 3 years. Moral reasoning scores increased with age both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, while delinquency scores dropped sharply, resulting in modest negative correlations between delinquency and moral reasoning. Structural equation modelling of the data delivered a satisfactory fit, suggesting statistical reciprocal effects between delinquency and moral reasoning for the total sample. A multigroup analysis for three different age cohorts revealed a consistent negative effect of previous delinquency on moral reasoning between the ages of 21 to 23 years. Between the ages of 24 to 26 years, however, delinquency scores were, in turn, negatively affected by previous moral reasoning. Although substantial gender differences in delinquency were reported, no such differences were obtained for either moral reasoning or its relationship with delinquency. The results are discussed in view of the need for a multidimensional process approach of the relation between moral judgment and delinquency.

Revisiting the Moderating Effect of Social Support on Strain: A Gendered Test

Agnew's General Strain Theory (GST) has both revived and advanced strain theory. It has recently been applied to topics ranging from gender differences in delinquency to differences in community crime rates. Tests of GST are now focusing on the intermediate variables that fall between GST and delinquency, such as anger and social support, but these tests have produced varying results. This paper adds to GST literature by empirically analyzing whether social support moderates individuals’ responses to strain and whether this moderating effect varies by gender. Testing is conducted using data from wave six of the National Youth Survey (NYS). Results provide support for GST and suggest that there are gender differences in the types and levels of strain experienced during the late teens. Further, there is evidence to support the hypothesis that social support does moderate females’ responses to certain types of strain.

Gender, social bonds, and delinquency: a comparison of boys' and girls' models

Past research has assessed gender differences in delinquency due to differential social controls, yet important questions remain regarding gender and social bonding. As much of this work was premised on Hirschi's measurement of the social bond, we examine whether gender moderates two parts of the social bond: the measurement of the social bond and structural differences between the social bond and delinquency. Using multiple-group structural equation modeling, we find that neither the measures of the social bond nor their relationships with property crime are gender-specific. The structural relationship between the elements of the social bond and violent delinquency differs slightly for boys and girls. We discuss implications of this research for social control theory, measuring the social bond and for gender-specific theories of social bonding and control.

Gender Differences in Capitalization Processes and the Delinquency of Siblings in Toronto and Berlin

The focus of this paper is on youth capitalization as it relates to gender differences in the delinquency of siblings. The study of opposite-sex siblings provides a unique opportunity to examine variation in how parental capitalization of sons and daughters is influenced by the same family unit. The structural form and function of the family changed enormously in relation to gender over the latter half of the last century, as indicated in the growing participation of mothers in the labour force of Western developed nations. We find this reflected in data that we look at from both contemporary German and Canadian school settings analyzed in this paper. We argue that the male subculture of delinquency is a residue of the former hegemony of an outmoded patriarchal power structure in both of these geopolitical settings, as well as across most family settings. In settings where mothers have unusually great power relative to fathers, there is substantial and significant evidence of daughters being less controlled than sons; however, even in settings where mothers have equal or greater occupational power than fathers, and where differences in parental control of daughters relative to sons are reduced, it is still the case that these gender differences in parental control are linked to gender differences in delinquency. Male subcultural delinquency may simply be a vestigial social trait, making male subcultural delinquents the social dinosaurs of a passing, more patriarchal era.

Power–Control as a Between- and Within-Family Model: Reconsidering the Unit of Analysis

Power-control theory predicts gender differences in delinquency based on the level of patriarchy in the family. Tests yield mixed results, generally supporting some elements of the theory. However, because previous research does not test the theory at the family level, research does not capture within-family, as well as between-family, differences. This study, using the National Youth Survey, yields support for the use of family-level data, over individual-level data, in testing power-control theory.

Improving Juvenile Justice for Females: A Statewide Assessment in California

This article reports findings from a survey of officials from various California state agencies and a series of interviews and focus groups with female youth and professionals serving this population. The study examined types of services provided, program barriers, and facilitation of change. The findings were used to make gender-specific policy and program recommendations. The authors found that meeting the needs of girls and young women requires specialized staffing and training, particularly in terms of relationship and communication skills, gender differences in delinquency, substance abuse education, the role of abuse, developmental stages of female adolescence, and available programs and appropriate placements and limitations. Effective programming for girls and women should be shaped by and tailored to their real-world situations and problems. In order to do this, a theoretical approach to treatment that is gender-sensitive and that addresses the realities of girls' lives must be developed.

Explaining the Gender Gap in Delinquency: Peer Influence and Moral Evaluations of Behavior

Gender is one of the strongest correlates of delinquent behavior, but gender differences in delinquency have proven difficult to explain. Some analysts have called for gender-specific theories of delinquency, whereas others argue that males and females are differentially exposed to or differentially affected by the same criminogenic conditions. Building on the latter approach, this article draws on Sutherland's theory of differential association and Gilligan's theory of moral development to argue that males and females are differentially affected by exposure to delinquent peers. Analysis of data from the National Youth Survey supports the hypothesis that moral evaluations act as a barrier to reduce or counteract the influence of delinquent peers among females, thereby producing large observed sex differences in delinquent behavior.

Bridging the Gender Gap in Criminology: Liberation and Gender‐Specific Strain Effects on Delinquency*

This study explores the empirical grounds for bridging the gender gap between liberation theories of female crime by integrating selected concepts from strain and liberation theses to explain female delinquency and gender differences in delinquency. Additive and interactive analyses were conducted with a sample of 1,613 adolescents. The findings provide little support for combining liberation and strain, primarily because of the inadequacy of liberated attitudes for strongly and consistently differentiating female delinquency. Strain, however, differed for males and females but was consistently and positively related to delinquency for both groups.