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Masculinity and Juvenile Justice*

Masculinity and Juvenile Justice* Chris Cunneent and Rob Whitet Feminists have challenged criminology with the demand to consider gender relations as necessarily implying a focus on masculinity as well as on femininity (Gelsthorpe and Morris 1990: 3-4). Despite the recognition that a discussion of gender inevitably involves a consideration of masculinity, there has been a failure when discussing juvenile justice to adequately address this issue. Although there has been some recent overseas literature in this area (Newburn and Stanko 1994), the absence of discussion in Australia has been particularly marked. We want to show how notions of masculinity are useful in discussing offending behaviour as well as the response by juvenile justice agencies. For instance, Brake (1985) comments that young men tend to see themselves in terms of masculinity, whereas young women are judged on their femininity. This implies a complex relationship to the social world around them, and significant differences in how young women and men engage with each other as well as with mainstream social institutions. An idealised male sex-role is to be tough, competitive, emotionally inexpressive, public, active and autonomous. The specific content of these characterisations does vary, however, depending upon the cultural, class, and ethnic background of the young http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology SAGE

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References (15)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© The Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology and Authors, 1996
ISSN
0004-8658
eISSN
1837-9273
DOI
10.1177/000486589602900106
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Chris Cunneent and Rob Whitet Feminists have challenged criminology with the demand to consider gender relations as necessarily implying a focus on masculinity as well as on femininity (Gelsthorpe and Morris 1990: 3-4). Despite the recognition that a discussion of gender inevitably involves a consideration of masculinity, there has been a failure when discussing juvenile justice to adequately address this issue. Although there has been some recent overseas literature in this area (Newburn and Stanko 1994), the absence of discussion in Australia has been particularly marked. We want to show how notions of masculinity are useful in discussing offending behaviour as well as the response by juvenile justice agencies. For instance, Brake (1985) comments that young men tend to see themselves in terms of masculinity, whereas young women are judged on their femininity. This implies a complex relationship to the social world around them, and significant differences in how young women and men engage with each other as well as with mainstream social institutions. An idealised male sex-role is to be tough, competitive, emotionally inexpressive, public, active and autonomous. The specific content of these characterisations does vary, however, depending upon the cultural, class, and ethnic background of the young

Journal

Australian & New Zealand Journal of CriminologySAGE

Published: Mar 1, 1996

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