Female Delinquency Case Study

In 2011, a total of 61,423 youths in the United States were considered juvenile and of that statistic 14% were females (Child Trends, 2013, p.1). The topic of Female Delinquency is important to discuss these days because it wasn’t until recent years that researchers even looked at females and the reasons behind their crime rates. Society normally looks upon males as being the normal criminal; however, with recent studies, females can be just as delinquent as males. Most people look at females as being feminine and not participating in criminal behavior, which is why not until recent years we have stepped out of this incorrect view and saw that not all females are the same. Therefore, we need to understand these female delinquents and gain

Normally SDT is only used to explain male crime rates, but not until recently did researchers begin to start using it to explain female crime rates as well. This theory matches female delinquency because due to the locations of their community, in urban areas, they are more likely to commit crime. Low socio-economic societies with a high percentage of crime correlates to the percentages of female delinquencies. If the females are in a community with gangs and poverty then social disorganization theory explains why the female is likely to be delinquent. Also, having the female experience some sort of family disruption is the main cause to female

Despite all of the factors that contribute to female delinquency, there are solutions. Currently there are programs and prevention centers intact. There are the boys and girls club that tries to give the underprivileged children somewhere to go and have fun without being on the streets committing crimes. There is not a specific set program that helps female delinquency and family disruption. The only program that I could think of would be family counseling, but that might be hard to accomplish if the family is low on income. The other two factors also do not really have any specific programs intact. In the one journal article, Females in the Juvenile Justice System: Influences on Delinquency and Recidivism, it stated that although there were female delinquency prevention programs most of them were not able to come up with any evidence proving their program is working (Barrett et al., 2013). Overall, the only programs that may prevent females would be the ones already existing; however, some of these may not be specifically used to target female delinquency. There are interventions and different types of programs out there for females, but they won’t go to these programs if they don’t have a push or someone behind them to support their future. I feel that the only way to help prevent female