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37 Criminology 761 (1999)
In the Company of Women: Structure and Agency in a Revised Power-Control Theory of Gender and Delinquency

handle is hein.journals/crim37 and id is 777 raw text is: IN THE COMPANY OF WOMEN: STRUCTURE AND AGENCY IN A REVISED POWER-CONTROL THEORY OF GENDER AND DELINQUENCY* BILL McCARTHY University of California at Davis JOHN HAGAN Northwestern University TODD S. WOODWARD University of British Columbia A power-control theory of the gender-delinquency relationship draws attention to differences in familial control practices. We extend the theory to address how parental agency and support for dominant attitudes or schemas influence male as well as female delinquency. This extension emphasizes that differences in structure, particularly between more and less patriarchal households, result in different family prac- tices, especially for mothers and sons. We find that variation in mothers' agency within the home affects their sons' support of conven- tional views, in particular, attitudes about the gendered nature of activi- ties, risk preferences, and beliefs about impunity, as well as their involvement in delinquent activities. Thus, the agency of mothers in less patriarchal families is an underappreciated source of reduced delinquency among sons. At the beginning of this decade Charles Wellford (1990:15-16) offered the following assessment of Hagan et al.'s (1989) power-control theory of gender and delinquency: The authors argue that the differences in rates of delinquency by gen- der reflect differences in parental control, subsequent risk prefer- ences, delinquent behavior, and delinquent designations. The central question for the theory is 'how and why are individuals located in male adolescent positions freer to deviate in ways defined by the state as delinquent than are individuals located in female adolescent posi- tions?' The answer: In industrialized societies where work and family * This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada. Points of view expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of SSHRC. We thank Ana Bettencourt and Lesley Kenny for their comments on earlier drafts of this work. CRIMINOLOGY VOLUME 37 NUMBER 4 1999 761

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