Guilty by Reason of Sex - Young Women and the Juvenile Justice System (From Criminal Justice System and Women, P 77-103, 1982, Barbara R Price and Natalie J Sokoloff, ed. - See NCJ-88349)

• NCJ Number: 88350
• Author(s): M Chesney-Lind
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 27 pages
• Sale Source: Clark Boardman Company, Ltd
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This review of research on female delinquency argues that scholarly apathy has contributed to gross distortions about female delinquency and has encouraged the justice system's discriminatory treatment of females, particularly status offenders.

Abstract

From the early 20th century through the 1960's, scholarly works assumed that virtually all female delinquency was sexual or interpersonal in nature, compared with male delinquency which was more likely aggressive and criminal. These authors also espoused court intervention in the lives of young girls and incarceration as a solution to female delinquency. The assumption that differential socialization of male and female children was a significant cause of sex differences led to the theory that young women who deviated from stereotyped feminine characteristics might become more delinquent. Recent research has faulted these views by showing that while females engaged in far more delinquency than is reported, they do not specialize in sexual or relational offenses. Other studies have documented the justice system's discriminatory treatment of females. Comparative studies conducted in the 1950's found that female juvenile offenders were less likely than males to be released by police, were more likely to be referred to a social or welfare agency, and had a significantly higher institutionalization rate. The juvenile court's history of extralegal paternalism has produced the status offense category, involving the justice system in the maintenance of traditional family norms which require a more restrictive role of greater obedience and chastity from females than males. Fully three-fourths of all girls in the criminal justice system are there for status offenses. Evidence also suggests that young women suspected of defying parental authority or sexual norms are retained in the system while girls arrested or referred for criminal activities are filtered out. Recent challenges to the status offense category and the family court system appear to have reduced sexual discrimination, but more efforts are needed to combat sex bias and misinformation. The article includes 149 footnotes.