U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Don't Forget the Women: A Multi-Level Analysis of Individual and Contextual Effects on Girls' and Boys' Delinquency

NCJ Number
197352
Author(s)
Dana Peterson
Date Published
May 2000
Length
208 pages
Annotation
This dissertation examines whether neighborhood-level factors have a differential affect on the delinquency of boys versus that of girls.
Abstract
The author explains that societal context is crucial in understanding juvenile delinquency. Neighborhood-level influences have been found to affect the delinquency of juveniles. However, how these neighborhood-level influences differentially affect girls and boys has received scant attention. To examine this issue, the author analyzed individual-level data from 1,536 middle school students in 6 cities. Neighborhood-level data was obtained for factors such as overcrowding, mobility, unit density, education/occupation, and concentrated disadvantage. Results indicated that individual-level factors did not affect the delinquency of girls differently than it did of boys. However, neighborhood-level analysis indicated that residential mobility and unit density did interact with the sex variable. More specifically, as neighborhood mobility increased, so too did the delinquency of girls. Further, as neighborhood mobility increases, the frequency of girls acts of delinquency increased. As for unit density, the higher the level of unit density, the lower the delinquency of both sexes. However, for this variable girls were affected more than males. Thus, the higher the unit density, the lower the delinquency of girls. The author cautions that this research is limited by its data, which was obtained from a public school sample. References, appendices