Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile Delinquency is a social issue that is hard to measure due to its complex nature. Often boys and girls are treated and judged differently in the legal system. The article by Hoyt and Scherer highlights the various factors contributing to female juvenile delinquents. Structural Functionalism focuses on how different social institutions interact and affect one another. The article highlights numerous social institutions such as family, peers and school and exemplifies how each group affects each other. According to structural functionalism juvenile delinquency is a product of mis-guided social institutions.

Female delinquency often occurs when they are in situations of mental, physical and sexually abuse generally occurring in the home. Many times women will leave their homes to escape abuse often being forced into situations of theft or sexual exploitation. Family influence highly affects women, if they lack proper authority, attention or moral guidance then children will be more apt to situations of delinquency. Also if their parents commit crime they will be more likely to repeat those crimes. I found it interesting that peer association often leads girls away from delinquency. Women often congregate in homes or private settings and do not form gangs without male influence very often. Even the women's movement has been linked to an increase in women crime rates. By liberating women they began to deconstruct gender norms and larger numbers participated in crime.

For some reason though women are treated more leniently then their male counterparts. Female's are often viewed as submissive and cooperative and are given fairer punishments. There need to be studies cross=examining gender roles to see if there really are differences in attitudes between male and female delinquents. By eliminating gender bias there will be a more efficient and effective method for intervening in juvenile delinquency.