Constructing a Black Female Delinquent

This chapter examines the state’s flagship institution for delinquent girls. It reveals the way intersecting notions of race, gender, and sexuality shaped reformers’ and practitioners’ implementation of juvenile justice. African American girls at the Illinois Training School were blamed for the interracial sexual relationships staff members and professionals abhorred and were considered the most violent girls in the institution. They also became subject to a race specific and gendered construction of female delinquency in the institution. Unlike the image of a fixable, inherently innocent delinquent that spurred the child-saving movement, black girls were cast as inherently deviant, unfixable, and dangerous delinquent whose negative influences could contaminate other children in the institution.

The Gendered Monitoring of Juvenile Delinquents

Through the framework of power-control theory (PCT), we provide a model of juvenile offending that places the gendered-raced treatment of juveniles central to the analysis. We test the theory using a unique sample that is predominately African American, poor, and composed entirely of juvenile offenders. Multivariate models compare the predictive power of many variables, including ones central to PCT, on status offenses and other, more serious, offenses. Gender and race variables were found to be significant, but varied in their impact across models. The interaction between these variables suggests that being Black and female increases the likelihood of sanctioning for status offenses, but not other types of offenses. Contrary to the theory, single-mother-headed households do not seem to produce more delinquent girls than other types of households. The overall findings of this study indicate that patriarchy and white privilege are continuing characteristics of the juvenile justice system.

“I Don’t Care About What You Want!” The Relation Between Juvenile Delinquents’ Responses to Social Problem Situations and Empathy in Secure Juvenile Institutions

The present study examined the relation between juvenile delinquents’ responses to social problem situations and empathy in secure juvenile institutions. The sample consisted of 79 delinquent boys (62%) and 49 delinquent girls (38%), aged 12 to 19 years. Results showed problems with accepting authority to be negatively related to both affective and cognitive empathy. Inadequate coping with competition was negatively related to cognitive empathy, whereas problems with receiving or giving help were negatively related to affective empathy. The central role of authority problems suggests that group workers could influence adolescents’ empathy development by helping them to learn to cope with social problem situations.

School bonding theory and female juvenile delinquency

This study focused on the school experiences of juvenile delinquent girls before they were admitted to Missouri's Juvenile Justice System. The theoretical framework of the study centered on School Bonding Theory which was developed by Hirschi in 1969. The research question guiding this study was: What was the school experience of female juvenile delinquents prior to entering the juvenile justice system?