To understand why juveniles of any gender are involved in delinquency, we first need to understand what exactly juvenile delinquency is, and how researchers define it. Juvenile delinquency is defined as the habitual committing of criminal acts or offenses by a young person, especially one below the age at which ordinary criminal prosecution is possible. While female delinquencies is rising they still remain a small percentage of the large number of delinquency acts being committed. There are numerous theories and beliefs as to why females or any juveniles for that matter getting involved in crimes. Some theories include: education and poverty, social exclusion, expected gain from crime relative to earnings from legal work, the risk of being caught and convicted, and the opportunities of legal activities. Where these are popular theories, other studies show that the causation of criminal acts is based off of psychological theories. In this paper, I will be breaking down these causes and providing an example as to why researchers have come up with these conclusions.
Education is a big key in being successful in life. Whether is getting a job with more money, or just working at your local factory, most jobs require now to at least have a high school diploma or a GED. Females are just naturally more dependent and more emotional. Sometimes, some things as simple as education does not come easy to some females. One in four females in America do not finish high school, and the dropout rate is even higher for girls of color. Teen pregnancy is also a reason for the increase in dropout rates in females, and it is also a reason for females at a young age to be involved with crimes. When they are unable to finish school due to the discrimination from school administrators and fellow students because of a pregnancy, this eliminates their ability to qualify for a job; which makes them look for fast money in not so legal ways.
