Girls And Crime Essays - Criminology, Childhood, Crime,

Girls and Crime What about girls? Stress, teenage mother hood, drug habits all those components needs survival skills. How do you keep those survival skills? Gangs, prostitution, abuse? To us juvenile delinquency is something that we look at it with disdain instead of taking the time to look into sociological issues, emotional issues and the reality that would give us a clearer view and still not make us feel or understand the conditions they live in, the pressures they go through or face everyday. For us to be able to make a non judgmental opinion is very difficult, perhaps many of us have been affected by the wrong doings of some delinquents actions such as a drive by shooting, being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The realization, what we call going through a day, everyday, is a day theyve survived. True there are other options to those girls, but realistically how many are able to go and get out as easy as those programs claim it is? The emotion I used to write this paper was compassion. I believe that beca use of that emotion I was able to bring a difference to the view of the female delinquent. State juvenile justice systems across the country are challenged by the question: What about girls? This question cannot be ignored because female involvement in the juvenile justice system continues on a steady course upward -- even as juvenile male involvement in delinquency declines. Between 1992 and 1996 the number of juvenile females arrested for Violent Crime Index offenses increased 25 percent, with no increase in arrests of male juveniles for the same offenses. Juvenile female arrests for Property Crime Index offenses increased 21 percent, while juvenile male arrests in this category decreased 4 percent. Law enforcement agencies made 723,000 arrests of juvenile females in 1996 (Snyder, 1997). Female involvement in the juvenile justice system, once seen as an anomaly, has evolved into a significant trend. State and local juvenile justice systems are increasingly called upon to address the needs of juvenile female offenders and at-risk girls. Recognizing that these needs require national attention, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has launched a multilevel approach. It includes reviewing how States are dealing with female juvenile offenders, developing an inventory of best practices, producing a prototype-training curriculum, a nd implementing a variety of program development activities. Which would contradict with Chesney-Lind and Sheldens (1992:97) point that despite increases over the past decade in both the number of female-headed household and more women in the workplace, female delinquency has either remained the same or declined. Then again it was not until women entered the criminology force, that gender issues began to be seriously addressed. What about girls? In its own way, there are often common challenges: ? A growing number of female offenders. ? Demand for comprehensive needs assessments that identify gaps in the provision of services for girls. ? The necessity of developing and implementing gender-specific services and programs designed to meet the unique needs of girls. ? Competition for scarce resources and a limited understanding of what works for girls. Another specific question is why is there an increase? Well maybe we should look at the reasons behind the actions, or maybe how they have rationalized their actions in order to be able to carry the crime. The video I have seen was a home tape of multiple shows or documentary on female crime. I was only able to come out from it with a fear, empathy, and even more confused then I first saw a video in the class and this is why. When watching the video in our classroom about the male delinquent, I saw pain in their eyes and some I saw I am getting my fifteen minute of fame look. The girls video in class and my friends was the need to survive look in almost all the girls faces. In the boys I saw it too but I found it very hardcore. I believe that if we were to break that fa?ade of authoritarian, need to prove a point to society, I believe we can make an immense difference. From most of the female offenders, my first realization was the neighborhood they lived in. The