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Jeanne at jcurran@csudh.edu
Subject line: jjex3: status and priv
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Source materials for the following questions will be found in Girls, Gangs, and Juvenile Justice, ed. by Meda Chesney-Lind and Randall G. Sheldon, 2d. edition, Wadsworth, 1998. ISBN: 0-534-26478-6.

Try to answer in 25 words or so. Make each answer integral, so that I can read it without reference to the exercise or the question itself.

1. What are the primary characteristics of girls' delinquency as compared to boys' delinquency? (passim and p.20, last paragraph)

   Girls commit delinquent acts "far less frequently" than boys, and girls' delinquency consists primarily of status offenses and shoplifting.

2. What are status offenses? (passim, and pp. 7-13)

   Status offenses are "delinquent or criminal "offenses defined within middle class privilege and enforcing middle class standards of behavior on delinquent or "inadequately supervised" youth. These standards come from the middle class context of school and work. That means that "being on time" is critical, since jobs and school demand that for grades and/or pay. That means also passivity, and dependence on authority to solve disputes. This is probably gender-related, since school in the elementary years is taught predominantly by women, and women have been socialized to call upon parental or teacher authority to resolve disputes. Males find such resolution of disputes "unmasculine," and are chided for appeals to mother or teacher.

   Status offenses make illegal for adolescents what is not illegal for adults. Especially in this age when "latch key" children must fend for themselves in what was earlier a "protected" neighborhood environment, this imposition of authority causes frustration and resentment for some adolescents. Girls are more likely to be held for status offenses such as "running away," not responding to parental authority (incorrigible or uncontrollable), and truancy.

3. How do boys and girls compare on the commission of status offenses? (passim, and pp. 7-13)

   Boys commit status offenses, but authorities tend to be more controlling of girls' behavior, so that girls are more likely to appear in the statistics. Often their families report such behavior on the part of girls to the criminal justice authorities. There is more concern expressed over female delinguency than over male delinquency at this level.

   This explanation suggests that "reporting factors" are involved. Police and official authorities reflect general societal presumptions in who they arrest and for what. The juvenile delinquency statistics must be viewed with an eye towards the underlying unstated assumptions.

4. How do girls' and boys' "criminal careers" compare? (passim, and pp. 21, 22)

   Boys' delinquent careers go on longer than girls. They are more likely to stay involved in delinquent behavior. Girls are far more likely to be "one-time delinquents."

5. How accurate are the reports of a major increase in violent crime and of a new trend of violent crime on the part of girls? (passim, and pp.15-16)

   Reports of a major increase in violent crime and of a new trend of violent crime on the part of girls are not accurate. The increases do not show changing patterns of juvenile delinquency. Girls still commit far fewer crimes than boys (based on both juvenile justice statistics and self-reporting), and most of girls' offenses continue to be status offenses and petty theft (shoplifting).