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Gender and juvenile delinquency
Gender and juvenile delinquency
Female juveniles compared to male juvenile crime rate
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Females are increasingly becoming more active in the juvenile justice system and this is said to be happening at alarming rates. It is important to learn more about why and how girls commit crimes so that we may also attempt intervention in an effective manner to prevent potential offenders and rehabilitate the girls who have already committed offenses. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has produced a report that includes a review of how these girls are getting into these situations, how states are dealing with this population of offenders, the national efforts that have taken place to attempt to address the needs of the adolescent female offender including training for individuals who work with these females and a female-based continuum of care model that’s use is recommended in the development of any female program development. This population of offenders requires not special treatment but different treatment than the typical juvenile offender which has been up until recently mostly all male.
Females are increasingly becoming more active in the juvenile justice system. While these rates are rising with females the rates of involvement for males in the juvenile justice system are said to be declining. From 1983 to 1992, arrests of female adolescents rose over 25% (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1993), and in 1994 and 1995 girls accounted for one fourth of all juvenile arrests (Girls Incorporated, 1996; Snyder, 1996; Snyder et al., 1996). Moreover, from 1985 to 1994, arrests of females for violent offenses more than doubled (Girls Incorporated, 1996). In 1997, there were nearly half a million arrests, approximately 23 percent, of juvenile females in the United States. Although many of the crimes ...
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...asic needs like physical safety, adequate nutrition and health care; then there are more specific needs like feeling loved, trust, positive female role models, and a sense of belonging. The lack of these needs being met alongnancy, family distress and mental illness.g with the likely existence of several other risk factors most often lead to a delinquent lifestyle. Some of these risk factors include a history of abuse, teen pre
Girls are three times as likely to have been sexually abused as boys (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996). Many female delinquents, an estimated 70 percent, report a history of sexual and physical abuse. Most often, abuse is perpetrated by family members or close family friends who are perceived as trusted adults (Davis, et al., 1997). This in turn leads to a young girl lacking one of the most basic needs which is trust.
The adult system’s shifts leaked into the juvenile system, causing an increase in incarcerations even when delinquency rates were declining at the time. Juvenile reform legislations prompted more compulsory sentencing and more determinate sentences for juveniles, lowering of the upper age of juvenile jurisdiction, considerable ease in obtaining waivers to adult court for juvenile prosecution, and made it easier to gain access to juvenile records as well. Furthermore, it led to greater preoccupation with chronic, violent offenders, which in turn led to a redirection of resources for their confinement. Thereby, the absence of reliable criteria for identifying such offenders tends to stereotype all delinquents and is more likely to raise the level of precautionary confinements. These three major shifts in juvenile justice policy demonstrate the power and depth of traditional beliefs about the causes and cures of crimes in U.S. society. It also shows how the system can bend for a time in the direction of new approaches to prevention and control. Today, we are presently in a time of conservative responses where the prevailing views about crime express beliefs about prevention, retribution, and incapacitation that are profoundly rooted in our
Jenson, Jeffrey and Howard, Matthew. "Youth Crime, Public Policy, and Practice in the Juvenile Justice System: Recent Trends and Needed Reforms." Social Work 43 (1998): 324-32
The Juvenile Justice system, since its conception over a century ago, has been one at conflict with itself. Originally conceived as a fatherly entity intervening into the lives of the troubled urban youths, it has since been transformed into a rigid and adversarial arena restrained by the demands of personal liberty and due process. The nature of a juvenile's experience within the juvenile justice system has come almost full circle from being treated as an adult, then as an unaccountable child, now almost as an adult once more.
Juveniles get involved in delinquency for many reason; a lot of the time it depends on their home lives. Females tend to lean towards substance abuse and sexual crimes more than violent crimes. What tends to make females go toward getting into delinquent behavior is how the parents treated them as they were growing up. In Davis article “At- Risk Girls and Delinquency”; when a family is trying to get control over their daughter sometimes it can have a negative effect and cause that daughter to act out or even run away (Davis, pg. 297). When a female starts getting involved in delinquency a lot of the time the risk factors are different then their counter- partners. Girls are at greater risk to get victimized than boys are since females are
Crime rates across the U.S. for juveniles is at all time high. Juveniles across all demographic have been punished more severely than those of the past. Contributing factors including lower socioeconomic areas such as the Detroit Metropolitan Areas & Chicago. This paper will discuss the apparent issue within the system focusing on juveniles in urban areas.
Vandiver, D. M., & Teske, R. (2006). Juvenile female and male sex offenders a comparison of offender, victim, and judicial processing characteristics. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 50(2), 148-165.
The Sentencing Project: Research and Advocacy for Reform. (2007) Women in the Criminal Justice System: Briefing Sheets.
The historical development of the juvenile justice system in the United States is one that is focused on forming and separating trying juveniles from adult counterparts. One of the most important aspects is focusing on ensuring that there is a level of fairness and equality with respect to the cognitive abilities and processes of juvenile as it relates to committing crime. Some of the most important case legislation that would strengthen the argument in regard to the development of the juvenile justice system is related to the reform of the justice system during the turn of the 19th century. Many juveniles were unfortunately caught in the crosshairs of being tried as adults and ultimately receiving punishments not in line with their ability
This paper will discuss the history of the juvenile justice system and how it has come to be what it is today. When a juvenile offender commits a crime and is sentenced to jail or reform school, the offender goes to a separate jail or reforming place than an adult. It hasn’t always been this way. Until the early 1800’s juveniles were tried just like everyone else. Today, that is not the case. This paper will explain the reforms that have taken place within the criminal justice system that developed the juvenile justice system.
In today's society juveniles are being tried in adult courts, given the death penalty, and sent to prison. Should fourteen-year olds accused of murder or rape automatically be tried as adults? Should six-teen year olds and seven-teen year olds tried in adult courts be forced to serve time in adult prisons, where they are more likely to be sexually assaulted and to become repeat offenders. How much discretion should a judge have in deciding the fate of a juvenile accused of a crime - serious, violent, or otherwise? The juvenile crime rate that was so alarming a few years ago has begun to fall - juvenile felony arrest rates in California have declined by more than forty percent in the last twenty years. While California's juvenile population rose by a half a million since the middle and late 1970's, juveniles made up less than fifth-teen percent of California's felony arrests in 1998, compared to thirty percent in 1978; according to the Justice Policy Institute. The juvenile arrests have dropped back, even as the population of kids between ages of ten and eight-teen has continued to grow, and the number of kids confined in the California Youth Authority (CYA) has fallen. With all the progress our society has made in cutting back in juvenile crimes there is still a very serious problem. But if locking kids up is the best way to address it, how do we explain a drop in crime when there are more teens in California and fewer in custody? First we must look at the economy around us. With so many job opportunities available more and more teenagers find honest ways to keep busy and make money. Our generation has a brighter future than the generation a decade ago. Next we look at successful crime prevention efforts: after-school programs, mentoring, teen outreach programs, truancy abatement, anti-gang programs, family resource centers. There is evidence that these programs are beginning to pay off. Sending more, and younger teens through the adult court system has been a trend across the country in reaction to crimes, such as school shootings and violent rapes. Yet evidence shows that treating youth as adults does not reduce crime. In Florida, where probability wise more kids are tried as adults then in any other state, studies found that youth sent through the adult court system are twice as likely to commit more crimes when they're release...
Adolescents who are physically abused are likely to question the intentions or others as well as develop bias perceptions of social processes. A study showed that "Inmates who were child victims were more than twice as likely as inmates who were adult victims to report having suffered prior instances of physical or sexual abuse. The differences were particularly striking with respect to sexual abuse. While an estimated 22% of child victimizers reported having been sexually abused, less than 6% of adult victimizers reported such backgrounds” (Ards et al, 2001). Not only are victims of sexual abuse more likely to enact sexual violence against others they are also likely to engage in prostitution.
Why do females commit crimes? Female’s percentages in jails and prisons have increase in the recent years. This has led to our society being concern of female crimes and how they affect us. This paper will discuss female inmates and some of the legal and social problems they face in the criminal justice system.
Traditionally, there has been little research on or interest in the impact of female crime in modern society. In addition, juvenile crime rates are on the rise, which combine for a void of research or information on female juvenile offenders. In general, crime rates for women offenders have risen since the 1990's. Increasing numbers of young women are also offending at higher rates. In a 1996 U.S. Department of Justice Report, the number of arrests of young women had doubled between 1989 and 1993. Twenty percent of all juvenile arrests were committed by girls, an increase of 87 percent. However, according to The National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools, males are far more likely to admit to criminal involvement than are females. For example, 12 percent of males and 4 percent of females reported carrying a hidden weapon other than a pocketknife in the past year (Wilson, p.150). There are several theories for this rise in crime proposed by modern feminists, including that the introduction of women into traditional male roles prompted women to commit increasingly dangerous and violent crimes. However, this paper will rely on Meda Chesney-Lind's theories from The Female Offender.
Delinquency in and of itself has been observed, studied, sifted, put into one form of statistical data or another and published for years. The question of “should girls’ delinquency be studied separately from boys’ delinquency?” can only be answered with an answer of yes. Data from every aspect of delinquency should be studied whether it be age, race, type of crime, along with gender. Without viewing all aspects of delinquency in regards to gender, any conclusions found would be biased, possibly leading to the enforcement of inappropriate laws and or treatments.
More importantly, “60 percent of children who are sexually abused do not disclose and most are acquaintances but as many as 47 percent are family or extended family” (The Scope of, 2016). The prevalence of child sexual abuse is difficult to determine because it is often not reported; experts agree that the incidence is far greater than what is reported to authorities (Child Sexual Abuse, 2012). Startling statistics represent the depth of the issue. Globally, prevalence rates show that a range of 7-36% of women and 3-29% of men experience sexual abuse in childhood (The Scope of, 2016). “The U.S Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau report child maltreatment 2010 found that 9.2% of victimized children were sexually assaulted” (Child Sexual Abuse,