Briefly discuss how the following correlates impact delinquency: gender, social class, and age

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Gender
With a few exceptions, males are significantly more delinquent than females. The teenage gender ratio for serious violent crime is approximately four to one and for property crime approximately two to one, male to female. The only exception to this pattern is arrests for being a runaway; girls are more likely than boys to be arrested as runaways. Today, there are more similarities than differences between male and female offenders, and the gender gap seems to be closing.

Social class
Middle-class kids may commit crime, but it is generally of the less serious nuisance variety, such as selling pot or committing vandalism, rather than serious felony offenses. It is lower-class youth who are responsible for the majority of serious delinquent acts. Lower class kids who live in socially disorganized areas believe that they can never compete socially or economically with adolescents being raised in more affluent areas. They may turn to criminal behavior for monetary gain and psychological satisfaction. In sum, poverty does not cause delinquency per se; many poor kids are not delinquent at all. However, poverty is linked to social problems—family disruption, poor educational opportunities, lack of resources—that are highly associated with youthful misbehaviors.

Age
It is generally believed that age is inversely related to criminality: as people age, the likelihood that they will commit crime declines (aging-out process).