Review Of Feminism
`Assignment #4
Girls Crime and Woman’s Place
1. What gender differences exist in the kinds and rates of delinquency among young people?
Girls are more likely to be arrested for status offenses and minor charges. Shoplifting is seen very frequently when talking about female young offenders. Boys are more likely to commit more serious crimes, and commit them more often than girls do. Although in self reported delinquency rates, there is little or no difference in the crimes that boys and girls create. This brings up an interesting point to how we view criminals and the difference in boys and girls.
2. What are “status offenses”? How can they help us understand how girls’ and boys’ delinquency varies?
Status offenses are in contrast to criminal violations and permit the arrest of youth for a wide range of behaviours that are violations of parental authority. These can include “running away from home”, “being a person in need of supervision”, “minor in need of supervision”, “being corrigible”, “beyond control”, truant, in need of “care and protection” and so on. While boys are arrested more often, girls are responsible for most of the status offenses in the justice system. This can lead us to think that there is an overrepresentation of girls in the court populations. Girls are looked at more harshly when it comes to committing status offenses, when it is contrasted with their self reported delinquency rates (pg. 146).
3. What does Chesney Lind mean when she states that the study of crime and delinquency has an andocentric focus? How does this focus manifest itself in theories of delinquency? How does it manifest itself in the criminal justice and court systems?
When Lind states that the study of crime and delinquency has an andocentric focus he means that the study of crime and the justice process is shaped by male experiences and understanding the social world. It...
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