Purpose: In the Etiology of Female Crime: A Review of Literature, author Dorie Klein provides the reader with a brief overview of the development of female criminal activity. The purpose of the article is to inform the reader about the possible reasoning for this increasing trend.

Question: The driving question is what is the cause of female delinquency and female crime, especially violent crime.

Information: The author's survey of available material gathers information that generally points to the subordinate role in females as the cause for violent female behavior. Particularly, the author finds that the minimal role society gives to the adolescent female is a leading cause for adolescent female criminal behavior, a trend that tends to continue on into adult life.

Inferences: From this article, one can conclude that the basic philosophy of Marx, particularly as to how criminal behavior is a result of a class or group being segmented from society, also applies to female crime.

Reasoning: In order to understand the author's reasoning, one must understand the basic premise of the surveyed materials. Essentially, the material focuses on the secondary role that females play compared to men and how criminal behavior is a way of both getting attention and placing themselves, forcefully, on the same level as males.

Assumptions: This article assumes that female psychology requires that a female feeling a lack of self-worth will turn outward towards crime instead of inward and depression.

Implications: If this author's reasoning is accepted, one will have to acknowledge sexism in society as being a cause for the increasing rates of criminal behavior in female populations.

Point-of-View: I think the author's argument is well reasoned and accurate as much of female crime mirrors male criminal behavior.

Purpose: In Girls' Crime and Woman's Place: Towards a Feminist...

Thus, the purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the lack of role of females in society has caused girls to use crime as a way of creating a role.
Question: The question presented in this article is why do young females turn towards violent crime as a way of gaining power?

Information: The author relies heavily on female psychology in proving their hypothesis. For example, the role of female bullying is used to show how violence is a way for a female to become an alpha-female in an all female community, thus creating a false sense of responsibility and adulthood that they mistakenly believe to be the epitome of being a strong female.

Inferences: This article concludes that the marginalization of adolescent females is the cause for female delinquency. In other words, female delinquent behavior is nothing more than an attention getting act.

Reasoning: In order to understand this, one has to have a basic understanding of adolescent psychology, including that of boys. Violence in boys is used as a way of determining status and is viewed as a rite of passage. Now that females are imitating this same behavior, it is viewed as criminal, thus creating another instance of gender marginilization.

Assumptions: The author assumes that this behavior is a new phenomenon but fails to explain why violence is new when gender classifications is anything but new.

Implications: By accepting the author's reasoning, one has to view female delinquency as being the result of how females are viewed.

Point-of-View: I agree with this author. I think the best approach to female delinquency from a criminal justice standpoint is to implement a punishment system that works to build meaning within these girls' lives.