NCJ Number
124207
Date Published
1989
Length
33 pages
Annotation
It is argued whether gender differences in delinquency are social structural in origin or biologically inherent.
Abstract
The stereotypical concept of adulthood which favors the individually separate or masculine self over the interdependent, loving, caring, or feminine self is itself out of balance. Daughters are encouraged from their first moments to maintain their maternal link with their mothers, while sons are pushed to separate, individuate, and objectify their experiences. As a boy's role model, his father is often at work or absent, thus his parental identification is more "positional" than personal. In a study, a boy and a girl resolved a hypothetical dilemma in quite different ways -- the girl offering a relational solution while the boy offered a more instrumental type of logic. Some point to social subordination of women as the origin of gender differences, but a feminist scholar argues that even if such dominance and subordination were to disappear, gender differences would not. However, gender differences in delinquency become quite clear when put in the context of the power-control theory, which predicts that the intensity, or lack thereof may account for the difference. Note, 10 tables.