The female offender : girls, women, and crime /

Chesney-Lind's notable new book addresses the renewed concern about female criminality in general and crimes of younger females in particular. Chesney-Lind (women's studies, Univ. of Hawaii, Manoa) has done an admirable job of putting into perspective the rank neglect of female criminality in both the academy and the wider society. She deals with the criminological "stag effect," wherein delinquency and crime are seen largely as a predominantly male enterprise, researched by male academics, and in the process marginalizing or almost completely ignoring the etiology and progression of female crime. One of the strongest chapters in the book, "Girls' Troubles and 'Female Delinquency'", suggests that the juvenile justice system victimizes many female juveniles by casting a wide net over "status" offenses that can be readily applied to many forms of "girl" delinquency. The author writes that "unlike boys, girls' victimization is specifically shaped by their status as young women," and further, "[d]elinquency theory has all but ignored girls and their problems." A must read. Upper-division undergraduates and above. J. C. Watkins Jr.; University of Alabama