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Juvenile Delinquency and Gender Revisited: The Family and Power-Control Theory Reconceived

NCJ Number
217360
Journal
European Journal of Criminology Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2007 Pages: 33-58
Author(s)
Andreas Hadjar; Dirk Baier; Klaus Boehnke; John Hagan
Date Published
January 2007
Length
26 pages
Annotation
Based on data from 319 families (father, mother, and 2 adolescent opposite-sex children) from West Berlin and East Berlin, Germany, as well as Toronto, Canada, this study examined gender differences in aggressive behavior.
Abstract
The study findings support the power-control theory (PCT) as an explanation for differences in aggression by gender, with boys tending to be more aggressive than girls. In its original formulation (Hagan et al., 1979) PCT indicates that the differential labor-force participation of mothers and fathers and different authority positions in the workplace translate into different power positions in the family. This leads to different parenting styles for boys and girls, with more control being exercised over girls. These differences in parental style lead to a different readiness by boys and girls to take chances and accept risk, which translates into differences in delinquent behavior. Since the late 1980s PCT has been subjected to several modifications and extensions. The revised PCT assumes that the links between patriarchal structures in employment and in parenting styles with girls and boys, as well as differences in risk affinity and delinquency, are mediated by the ideologies of gender role preferences and hierarchic self-interest. The study found that the gendered structure of the work sphere contributed to the emergence of gender differences in aggressive behavior, either through increasing gender differences in socialization within the family or parental ideological commitments to socialization according to gender. These factors were determined to account for as much as one-sixth of the observed variation in aggressive behavior by gender. 1 table, 3 figures, and 53 references