The Impact of Gender and Family on Juvenile Delinquency in...

Juvenile delinquency is of great concern in the United States. In 2007 over 2 million arrests were juveniles. There are two types of juvenile delinquency. The first type of offense is a behavior that would be a criminal violation for an adult. The other offense is called a â€Å"status† offense. Status offenses are delinquent actions that do not apply to adults, like running away and truancy. This paper will discuss the impact of gender and family on delinquency and the treatment by gender in the juvenile justice system. Juvenile delinquent behavior is believed to be under-represented due to the limited methods of collecting juvenile crime data. Juvenile arrests accounted for 16 percent of all violent crime arrests (i.e. murder, rape,†¦show more content†¦A policy brief from the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy (IMAPP) found that both the individual risk and overall rates of crime were reduced when parents were married. The brief summarized 23 U.S. studies published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2005, and determined that areas with high rates of family fragmentation (especially unwed childbearing) tended to have higher rates of crime. In addition, they found evidence that teens raised in single-parent homes were more likely to commit crimes (IMAPP Policy Brief, 2005). 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. 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