Crime And Delinquency

Adolescence, as many of us can easily recall, is quite a turbulent time in life. All sorts of changes are happening as an individual matures from a child into an adult. Adolescents must learn to handle not only the biological changes of puberty, but also the social changes. From navigating the social waters at school with peers and friends, to adjusting to the often-tumultuous shift from parental dependence to autonomous independence, to grasping the realities of how to function in society and what that means for the individual personally. These hurdles are difficult enough to manage on their own, though most of us are able to overcome them without too much hassle or interference. Unfortunately, this is not the case for every child. Life is …show more content…
Historically, crime and delinquency have been mostly perpetrated by males, particularly with violent crime, with females participating typically in minor offenses. Over the last twenty years or so, there has been a shift in which not only the rate of female offending has increased, but also the types of offenses girls commit are becoming more similar to those that boys commit. While it is certainly a good thing that overall delinquency rates have declined, the increase in female offending is as concerning as it is perplexing. Clearly, something must have changed to influence this happening. What is causing a previously mostly docile group to become more criminal in their behavior? When attempting to pinpoint possible causes for this trend, it may help to examine the status quo before the shift began to occur, namely the differences in gender stereotypes. In this paper, gender stereotypes are first discussed in their relation to both the propagation and deterrence of juvenile delinquency. Power control theory is discussed that explain how changing gender stereotypes and gender roles may influence the rise in female offense rates. Finally, the implications of this shift in female delinquency are discussed in relation to society at …show more content…
Yes, clearly, an increase in delinquency is problematic per se, but more concerning are the implications behind it. Something is seriously off-kilter when progresses in gender equality result in the daughters of successful and powerful mothers are more deviant than the daughters of dependent stay at home mothers. I believe this speaks volumes to how the movement for gender equality has left some very important issues unresolved. If masculinity encourages criminal behavior while femininity deters it, and females adopting more masculine traits increases deviant behavior, then it would seem that for all our efforts to balance the scales appear to be rather misguided. So much attention has been given to raising the status of women to that of men, which is somewhat ironic because it implies that masculinity is the still the standard by which we evaluate individuals, that we have largely ignored the possibility of reshaping the concept of masculinity. While the women’s liberation movements have indeed made leaps and bounds in improving the lives of women, the idea of masculinity and manhood has, for the most part, remained stagnant, leaving many men confused as to how they fit into this new realm. It is my opinion that a restructuring of what masculinity means will go a long what toward achieving actual equality between the sexes, hopefully by negating the idea of polar