Gender and Family

There are many theories as to how gender affects juvenile delinquency. These theories range from views on the physical difference of males and females to the personality and cognitive differences in males and females. Along with delinquency rates and gender comes the idea of the idea that there is a difference in treatment between delinquent males and females. There are four main views of how family effects delinquency: parental conflict or breakup, interpersonal conflict, negligent parents, and deviant family members.

No matter how one looks at the rates of delinquency, there is a large difference in the delinquency rates of males and females in the United States. Today males account for approximately 75% of juvenile crime. Though the percentage of juvenile crime committed by females has been increasing each year, males still account for the majority of juvenile crime. There are multiple theories that exist today as to why there is such a difference between male and female delinquency rates. One theory on why there is such a difference in the rates of male and female delinquency is the differences in the traits of males and females, or the trait theory. This basically means that it is believed that the physical and hormonal differences in males and females effects the rates at which the will exhibit delinquent behavior. Some of the beliefs of trait theorists are that females are less aggressive than males and that hormonal differences or imbalance is reason for delinquent behavior, girls who develop sexually early become anti-social to their age group and are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior, and that premenstrual syndrome was the largest factor in cases of female violent crime. Another theory in the difference in the delinquency rate is socialization theory. This theory can be summarized as the belief that a child’s social development is the key to their delinquent behavior. It is believed that the main reason that males are more delinquent that...