Reflections about gender differences in girls’ delinquency behaviors in Chile

Abstract

This article presents a reflection on the gender differences of offending behaviors in girls and adolescents, in light – mainly – of the findings of a study of the Comprehensive Family Attention Program (PAIF, for its acronym in Spanish) 24 hours of the Undersecretary of Prevention of the Crime, from Chile. The interpretive framework used for this reflection is that of feminist criminology, and from this perspective it is considered how girls and adolescents have been historically relegated in studies on juvenile delinquency, and the need to incorporate gender stratification in the patriarchal society, especially focusing to identify the existing gender differences in female adolescent delinquency and its treatment.