Why Are Girls In Trouble With The Law: Helpful Or Harmful?

Girls in trouble with the law are often perceived as more out of control or more vulnerable than boys why is this? What are the consequences of this perception?

There is a lot of anxiety about girls who find themselves in trouble with the law and surrounding the apparent increasing lawlessness amongst women. Many question whether this lawlessness stems from the idea that girls are more vulnerable or that they show a greater lack of control when compared to males.

Girls are seen to be doubly deviant in the eyes of the law due to the stereotypes that surround the word ‘girl’. When researching the terms most associated with girls, it was most noticeable that words such as ‘sweet’, ‘innocent’, ‘nice’ and ‘caring’ are the most prevalent. In contrast,

J. 2014) who claims that:

“While women have demanded equal opportunity in the fields of legitimate endeavours, a similar number of determined women have forced their way into the world of major crime, such as white collar crime, murder and robbery”.

This illustrates that female offenders are introducing a newly evolving breed of women. Brown (Bholse S. 2009) furthers this point by claiming that these new evolved women have begun to “engage in predatory crimes of violence and corporate fraud. Making them enter a more male dominated world”. Evidence for this is displayed in crime statistics that show that female white-collar crime has been increasing since the liberation of women.

Adler (Peak K. J. 2014) continues this idea stating that women are using this vocational liberation to climb the corporate business ladder and so have since had the means to commit or even create careers in white collar crime. Feinman (Feinman C. 1986) furthers the idea of liberating women causing crime by claiming that women are seen as troubled and mad because they ‘dared to go against their natural biological givens such as ‘passivity’ and a ‘weakness of compliance’. This perception gives credence to the idea that women are becoming ‘mad’ and committing criminal acts because they are not conforming to the norms of a girl that benefit society and, because they are trying to change to become stronger and more independent, are finding themselves in trouble

F. 2011) who claims that if a woman offender behaves in the stereotypical way traditionally expected then she is less likely to be arrested supports this idea of leniency in the criminal justice system, meaning that she should act innocent and vulnerable. Daly (Daly K. 1989) builds on the point about being perceived as vulnerable, claiming that girls will be treated more leniently if they are constructed as partial victims and so this idea encourages girls in trouble with the law to at least appear ‘vulnerable’. Daly (Daly K. 1989) also states that girls will be treated harshly if they are seen to be anything other than what they stereotypically should be, meaning if they appear to be wild or out of control they can expect harsher