Analyzing Gender Differences in the Relationship between Family Influences and Adolescent Offending among Boys and Girls

The aim of this paper is to examine gender differences in several dimensions of family-related variables in the explanation of adolescent offending. Analyses are conducted to examine: 1) whether boys and girls differ in levels of offending and in levels of family variables respectively, 2) whether the correlations between family variables and offending differ by gender, and 3) whether the family variables explain gender differences in adolescent offending. The study employs self-report data from a sample of young adolescents in Halmstad, Sweden (N = 889). The findings show that boys offend more than girls and that there are clear differences in both levels of the family variables and in the associations between the different family variables and offending. The findings also show that the family variables cannot explain gender differences in offending. The findings in this study are not only relevant theoretically, they also have important policy implications.