Female Delinquency, Gender Differences, Power Control Theory, and Juvenile Justice System

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Chapter 7: Gender and Delinquency
For a very long time, delinquency acts have always been linked to boys and men. Girls are rarely linked to these acts due to the assumption that they are incapable of violating the law. When a girl commits a delinquent act, it is viewed as a result of or influenced by family or emotional issues (Siegel and Welsh 218). Therefore, criminologists have always taken such issues lightly. However, in contemporary society, girls have been noted to get into grave criminal acts. Additionally, the way gender differences are conceived has changed.
The different ways in which boys and girls are socialized and treated influences their development. Parents are likely to treat them differently to promote a generally ‘perceived as appropriate’ boy-and-girl behavior. The differences between girls and boys in their development are rooted in socialization, cognitive differences, and personality types (Siegel and Welsh 219). Under cognitive differences, girls are suggested to be strong in visual-motor aspects and languages, while boys are superior in mechanical tasks (Siegel and Welsh 220).
Gender differences are vivid, as seen in the aspects of socialization and personality. In socialization, girls can sustain relationships with people around them. They are also less aggressive and tend to blame themselves for common occurrences in life (Siegel and Welsh 220). On the other hand, boys are independent, aggressive, and their anger can be noted externally. In personality differences, girls have more cases of lower self-esteem, bold self-awareness, and sharper attention span. On the other hand, boys have been theorized to possess higher self-esteem (Siegel and Welsh 221). They also base their strength on material elements and have a low attention span.
I tend to believe that gender differences in the rates of delinquency have relatively decreased and narrowed. In the total number of arrests following criminal and unlawful acts, boys still stand at seventy-six percent. In severe and overly violent arrests, boys stand at eighty-two percent while girls carry the remaining statistic (Siegel and Welsh 222).
Years ago, women were still considered less intelligent and possessed a child's attributes, as supported by the evolutionary scale. Females who involved themselves in delinquent acts were different from the women considered upright and morally sound (Siegel and Welsh 224). Delinquent females were said to have more male characteristics than 'normal' females. For example, these women had excess body hair, abnormal cranium, muscular impression, and unexplained wrinkles.
For a long time, I have always wondered why the bigger girls in school, who...