NCJ Number
92532
Journal
Adolescence Volume: 18 Issue: 72 Dated: (Winter 1983) Pages: 739-751
Date Published
1983
Length
13 pages
Annotation
A large portion of the research carried out to date on juvenile delinquency and gang behavior has been concentrated on male delinquents.
Abstract
For example, Thrasher's study (1927) of 1,313 gangs in Chicago devoted less than a page to the question of whether or not females form gangs in the same way that males do. When females are included in delinquency studies, their behavior is almost always explained in psychological or social-psychological terms. The general reasoning is that females commit delinquency acts or join delinquent gangs because they are socially maladjusted, come from broken and unhappy homes, and do not relate well to the opposite sex. In this article, we juxtapose this theoretical perspective to a social structural explanation of both female juvenile delinquency and female gang membership, and then test these two alternative explanations for juvenile delinquency using data on black, female juveniles collected in Los Angeles during the mid-1960s. (Publisher abstract)