‘The differences in strain between males and females and how strain explains delinquency’

Abstract

Abstract There is still a lot of delinquency among youth: there were over 15.000 youthful delinquents known in the Netherlands in 2016. Of those youthful delinquents over 11.000 were male. But how can this large amount of male youthful delinquents be explained? General Strain Theory (GST) argues that strain can cause delinquency. Strain is caused by events which are stressful, or when a situation is deemed unfair. According to GST there are gender differences in the types of strain people experience: in this research it is hypothesized that males experience more strainful events that are more likely to cause crime and that females experience more strainful events that are less likely to cause crime. Furthermore GST argues that there are different coping strategies regarding strain: it is hypothesized that males are more likely to resort to delinquency because of strain and that females in their turn are more likely to resort to alcohol- and drug use. This research shows that females do experience more strain that is less likely to cause crime. Males do not experience more strain that is more likely to cause crime. Males do, however, resort more to delinquency, but there was no indication that this was because of their experienced strain. Females do resort more to drug use because of their experienced strain, but they do not resort to alcohol use.