Female Juvenile Crime

Paper Summary:

The paper explores how environmental factors such as physical and sexual abuse, race, location and substance abuse all contribute to the rising rates of female youngsters in juvenile detention centers. The paper also discusses how mental health is a factor in their turn to a life of crime. The paper reveals that most female juvenile delinquents begin their career of crime between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, a very vulnerable time in an adolescent girl's life. The paper points out, however, that at this age there is a chance of reaching out and preventing them from becoming delinquents in the first place.

From the Paper:

"When most people think of juvenile crime they tend to think of male offenders. However, there has been a sharp increase in the arrest rates of juvenile girls since the 1990's. A surprising twenty-six percent of juvenile arrests on 1997 were female, (Loper). There was also a huge increase of twelve percent for juvenile female offenders between the years of 1993 and 1997, (Loper). With these increasing rates of young females behind bars for a variety of criminal offenses, one must look into how these numbers are steadily increasing."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Chesney-Lind, Meda. "Girls' Crime and Women's Place: Toward a Feminist Model of Female Delinquency." Crime and Delinquency. Vol. 35, No. 1. pp. 5-29. 1989.
• Loper, Ann Broker. "Female Juvenile Delinquency: Risk Factors and Promising Interventions." 2000. Found on November 10, 2007 at http://www.ilppp.virginia.edu/Juvenile_Forensic_Fact_Sheets/FemJuv.html
• Siegal, Jane A. "The Relationship Between Child Sexual Abuse and Female Delinquency and Crime." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. Vol. 40, No. 1. pp. 71-94. 2003.
• U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Guiding Principles for Promising Female Programming: An Inventory of Best Practices. 1998. Found on November 10, 2007 at http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/pubs/principles/Ch1_1.html

More papers on Female Juvenile Crime:

• Essay # 49370 : "Female Juvenile Crime"
• Cause and Effect Essay # 22199 : "Female Juvenile Delinquents: Causes and Consequences"
• Essay # 57832 : "Risk Factors Associated with Female Juveniles"

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