preview

Female Juvenile Delinquency Essay

Better Essays
Open Document

Female juvenile delinquency: What went wrong with “Sugar and Spice and all things nice”?
Ariana Kalaitzaki
S2760178
Griffith University

Abstract
This review addresses major questions around female juvenile delinquency, around which much contemporary research is oriented. These involve which factors are contributing to female juvenile delinquency and what causes female juveniles to display criminal behaviour in the first place. Theories and risk factors will be identified. Although research in the past decade has yielded considerable information about these questions, issues that need further investigation are also presented.

Female juvenile delinquency: What went wrong with “Sugar and Spice and all things nice”? Until recently, …show more content…

Cyril Burt attributed female delinquency to menstruation. William Healy and Augusta Bronner attributed female delinquency to abnormally masculine weight and Raffaele Garofaldo believed that a combination of biological, social and organic factors lead a person to commit crime (Siegel & Senna, 1997). After time, this biological view became scrutinised due to a lack of proper methodology (Siegel & Senna, 1997).
Psychological Determinism. Psychological determinism focuses on the psychological traits that lead to delinquency such as mental and emotional disturbances. There are 3 common perspectives. The first is the psychoanalytic theory. Sigmund Freud proposed 3 dimensions of the human personality including the id, ego and superego. The id is the unrestrained, pleasure seeking component. The superegos purpose is to restrain the id using morals and the ego finds a balance between the id and superego (Siegel & Senna, 1997). Freud believed that an imbalance of these components led to a damaged personality, and in women, their deviance resulted from sexual maladjustment, gender conflict and neuroses (Gora, 1982). The second perspective is the behavioural theory whereby personality is developed through interactions with others (Siegel & Senna, 1997). Behaviourism is concerned with measurable events, such as the reaction a minor gets as a result of their behaviour. If behaviour is reinforced, the minor will be more likely to repeat the behaviour. The

Get Access