Gender Differences On Delinquency Among Secondary School Students

The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the gender differences among secondary school students who demonstrate delinquent behaviours. A total of 242 juveniles of age 14-17 years old participated voluntarily in the research. The mean age of the participants was M=16.2 years (SD=1.14). 137 (56.6 %) of them are female and 103 (42.6%) of them are male. The Delinquency Scale of Wave II questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument. The Cronbach alpha coefficient (?), which was used to measure the internal consistency of the questionnaire, showed the value of .612. The T-test for independent groups was used to verify potential differences across indicator variables. Results revealed that there are no statistical differences between boys and girls on most of the variables that describe delinquent behaviours. There were only three behaviours that showed statistical differences between them: in the last 12 months, how often did you steal something worth more than fifty euros (p=.012); how often have you used or threatened to use a gun to take, steal something from someone (p=.022); and have you been part of a group, gang known in the neighborhood, or school (p=.036). In all three variables boys showed the higher mean values than girls. These results challenge the perception of our society about the expectations for delinquent behavior. We expect boys to show more delinquent behavior than girls, so there is a need for further studies involving cultural variables in order to explore more in depth the issue