NCJ Number
133339
Journal
Sex Roles Volume: 21 Issue: 5/6 Dated: (September 1989) Pages: 375-399
Date Published
1989
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This paper critically reviews the growing literature since the mid-1970s that began to report that the era of women's emancipation had been accompanied by changes in the volume and character of female lawbreaking.
Abstract
The review covers the basic premises of a gender role socialization theory of traditional patterns of female delinquency and examines whether females have remained traditional in their delinquency patterns, whether the observed changes (if they exist at all) are real or the result of changing societal reactions, and whether female delinquents have been "masculinized" or in other ways influenced by the women's liberation movement or changing gender roles. Explanations of female delinquency that are derived from social control, power-control, strain, and subcultural theories also are examined. It is argued that more attention needs to be directed to understanding the "role strain" inherent in females' efforts to negotiate ambiguous or contradictory gender roles and that the concept of role strain offers a promising explanation of contemporary patterns of female delinquency. 155 references (Author abstract modified)