NCJ Number
80319
Journal
Criminology Volume: 19 Issue: 3 Dated: (November 1981) Pages: 421-433
Date Published
1981
Length
13 pages
Annotation
A strong positive association between masculinity and delinquency is an important assumption in theories which explain why (1) males are more delinquent than females and (2) females are becoming increasingly delinquent. Self-report measures obtained from 1002 junior and senior high school students from a large Southeastern city constitute the data for an examination of the first of these relationships.
Abstract
Factor analytic procedures were used to identify the components of masculinity: leadership, aggressiveness, competitiveness, ambitiousness, and successfulness. Separate models of masculinity, opportunity, attachment to conventional others, and belief in the moral validity of law are constructed for status, property, and aggressive offenses. For females, masculinity has no direct effects on any type of delinquency. For males, masculinity is directly related only to status offenses. The results are inconsistent with analyses of females' delinquency that emphasize their adoption of masculine characteristics. (Publisher abstract)