The General Strain Theory Of Female Delinquency

The way individuals learn to interact with society as children tends to predict how they will interact with society and respond to its environments as adults. There are social theories that help the understanding of why individuals choose deviant behaviors and how they progress through life. Social process theories view criminal and deviant criminal behaviors as evolving mechanisms learned through societal interaction. Social development theories view deviant and criminal behaviors as part of a maturation process. Social theories are conclusions that have come about based on the response of individuals to

Strain theories of criminal behaviour have been amongst the most important and influential in the field of criminology. Taking a societal approach, strain theories have sought to explain deficiencies in social structure that lead individuals to commit crime (Williams and McShane 2010). Strain theories operate under the premise that there is a societal consensus of values, beliefs, and goals with legitimate methods for achieving success. When individuals are denied access to legitimate methods for achieving success, the result is anomie or social strain. This often leads an individual to resort to deviant or criminal means to obtain the level of success that they are socialized to pursue. This is the basic premise of strain theory. This

Focuses mainly on interactionist theory but uses labeling theory as a type of interaction that affects delinquency. Labeling specifically in relation to gender, used to explain the gender gap in juvenile delinquency. Used data from the 1976 National Youth Survey, a longitudinal study, uses a multistage cluster sampling, sample includes 1,725 11-17 year-olds, using the first three annual waves of data. Used personal interviews to collect self-report of delinquency, parents ' appraisals of their children, and youths ' reflected appraisals of themselves from the standpoint of parents, friends, and teachers. Labeling theory implies that males are more likely than females to be labeled delinquent, in part because they engage in more objective acts of rule violation, and in part because common stereotypes portray delinquency as a male phenomenon. Except status offenses, which are more often reported for and enforced on females rather than males. Believed that females may be more relationship-oriented, making them more sensitive to public opinion. The labeling process is more consequential for females than for males is also unsupported.

One theory on of what causes juveniles to become delinquents, is the Strain theory which was revised by Agnew (1992). The Strain theory is basically the idea that when a juvenile is unable to achieve their goals, it leads them to committing delinquent acts. According

In the video “The Lost Children of Rockdale County” produced by Dretzin and Goodman in 1999, portrays the life of teenagers engaging in peer delinquency, sexual behavior, and drugs and alcohol consumption. The video portrays the life of Nicole a 14 year old female who had engaged in sexual behavior, delinquent activity and lived under lack pf parental supervision. The General Theory of Crime and Delinquency is defined as “Motivations for crime include reinforcements for criminal activity, exposure to successful criminal models, learnijng beliefs favorable to crime” (Frailing & Harper, 2013. p.156). Robert Agnew’s theory can be related into Nicole’s life, because the environment in which she grew clearly affected the five domains explained in the theory. The family domain was affected because Cindy’s (Nicole’s mother) lack of parental attachment during Nicole’s infancy affected the relationship. Nicole argues that she started to engage in a risky behavior because she wanted to obtain her mother’s attention because her mother worked full time and didn’t had time to monitor her behavior.

Juvenile status offenses are minor offenses that only apply to those under the age of 18 such as skipping school or running away from home. Other examples include curfew violations, possession and consumption of alcohol, and possession and use of tobacco. Theories such as the labeling theory and Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory attempt to explain why females commit juvenile status offenses. Additional theories attempt to explain their treatment in the juvenile justice system such as the Chivalry Hypothesis. Based on the rising rates of status offenses for girls and the unique factors that contribute to this issue, better prevention and

The general strain theory is an established theory that provides a basic understanding relating to different elements leading to specific criminal behaviors. The theory has been of importance in trying to map criminal patterns among individuals involved in criminal behavior, thereby creating a platform for their rehabilitation. The general strain theory has had a close connection to juvenile delinquency, as it creates a platform where psychologists can define some of the key factors prompting teenagers and youths to engage in criminal behaviors. According to Zhang (2008), teenagers and youths tend to become highly vulnerable to lack of emotional control attributed to an aspect of negative emotions, which do not include anger, thereby creating a platform for them to engage in behaviors that would be characterized as criminal. The main research problem of this report is to create a connection between the general strain theory and juvenile delinquency.

When it comes to juvenile delinquency an adolescent personality is usually impacted from different factors such as early child hood experiences of witnessing a crime, seeing a violent act, being the victim of a crime, or being around others or family who engaged in criminal activity, these factors can either create an adolescent with a positive or negative attitude, or an anti-social behavior which could create a path for a delinquent behavior (Wilson, p. 34). A study has shown that family interactions accounts for about 40 percent of the cause of an adolescent with an anti-social behavior, the study also shown that aggressiveness which is a common trait of adolescent who engage in delinquent acts is usually created from peer influences (Wilson, p. 34).

The number one cause of female delinquency is victimization. Many are forced into prostitution or sex trafficking, exploitation, tort, and crimes. The most common ages were 13 and 14 year olds who reported having been beaten, raped, stabbed or shot. Youths run away from homes attempting to escape the abuse and unfair treatment, they end up on the street forced to commit crimes in order to survive. They are seeking love, patience, and empathy. Females are

This paper will be going over social learning theory and how it affects juveniles and its relation to Juvenal delinquency. Social learning theory states that learning social behaviors happens through observation and learning from others. This paper will be explaining how family, friends, and socialization affect the child's behaviors in relation to juvenile delinquency. Also going over the strengths and weaknesses of the social learning theory.

Juvenile delinquent has different terms, but many may see it as groups of young boys and men standing on a street corner, wearing baggy outfits, and boasting defiant attitudes. Many will be surprised to learn that the juvenile delinquent is slowly changing. The boys are more responsible for the majority of the crimes overall, the number of juvenile females involved with the justice system has been steadily increasing over the past three decades (Gross 84). There has been a growth in the number of detention, arrest, cases processed, and subsequent long-term incarceration rates among females, but since research about female’s offenders are generally lacking, no one knows the clear understanding of the causes. In the juvenile system, girls have

     Some causes for conduct in adolescents are no discipline, unstructured discipline and a broken home. A broken home is one of the factors that can produce a delinquent child. A broken home reduces the opportunity for creating a strong attachment between child and parents and that reduces the parent’s ability to condition the child. Many theories concerning the causes of juvenile crime focus either on the individual or on society as the major contributing influence. Theories centering on the individual suggest that children engage in criminal behavior because they were not sufficiently penalized for previous delinquent acts or that they have learned criminal behavior through interaction with others.

Across the nation, social scientists and criminologists have researched and hypothesized the main contributing factors that promote juvenile delinquency. The Strain/ Anomie theory introduced by Robert Merton and later revised by several other theorists, attempts to explain why juvenile subculture tend to behave certain ways when confronted with pressures from everyday life. Revised by other theorists, the Strain theory attempts to provide the framework of juvenile delinquency and its sources in order to analyze the effectiveness of this assumption, as well as to implement certain crime prevention policies and programs to curb this problem. This paper is going to analyze how the Strain theory contributes it’s principles of delinquency

There are many reasons why juveniles become delinquent. Stress is a huge factor when dealing with juveniles. The Strain Theory suggests that strain/stress and negativity may directly and/or indirectly lead to delinquency. Stain/stress lead to negative emotions which can fuel delinquency including violence, vandalism, truancy, illegal drug use, and theft. According to Sickmund & Snyder, males tend to be more aggressive and involved in violent crimes than females. A 2003 survey suggests that 33 percent of high school students have admitted to being involved in one or more physical altercations within the past 12 months. Of the 33 percent of students, males were substantially more likely to fight than females, and more likely to commit a violent act (Sickmund & Snyder, 2006).

The social process and traditional structure theory explained why female crime rates are rather lower than males. The social process theory tend to explain the traditional crime with regards to differential opportunity to lean criminal techniques and values. The use of the traditional theory shows evidence in which considered the overlap on the causes of crimes committed by both genders. Studies shows that both male and female offenders that came in contact with the criminal justice system often came from a social background that are typically of low socioeconomic status, poorly educated, under or unemployed, and minority groups (Steffensmeir and Allan, 1995). The only difference between male and female offenders is, female