Sex and the age-specific prevalence of delinquency

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In Figure 5, participation in recorded crime is broken down by the sex of the alleged offender.¹ As is found by all sex- and gender-specific research on crime, the prevalence of male delinquency is much higher than that of females. Overall, 68% of recorded offenders in the two birth cohorts were male, and 32% were female, for a sex ratio of 2 to 1. The prevalence of recorded delinquency among males is greater at all ages included in this study. At 15 years old – the peak age of female participation in delinquency – 7.6% of boys, but only 3.3% of girls, were identified as offenders. Among 5 year old boys, 0.06%, or one in 1,700 was apprehended; the comparable figure for girls is 0.006%, or one in 18,000. The age-related trajectory for males has a similar shape to that for the combined sexes shown in Figure 3. This is not surprising, since the population of identified offenders is numerically dominated by boys. There is a small difference between the boys and the combined group at the age of 17, where the combined trajectory (Figure 3) falls off faster than the male trajectory. The reason for this can be seen in the female trajectory, which peaks at 15, and declines thereafter.

Figure 5
The prevalence of recorded delinquency from ages 5 to 17, by sex

The similarities and differences between the shapes of the male and female participation trajectories can be seen more clearly in Figure 6, where they are plotted on different scales to control for the difference in level. The shapes of the trajectories are very similar up to the age of 11. From 11 to 13, it is the rate of participation of females which increases more rapidly, relative to level, than that of males. For example, the ratio of rates of apprehension of 12 to 11 year old girls is 3 to 1; whereas for boys the ratio is only 2.2 to 1. The ratio of the rates of 13 year old offenders to 12 year olds is 1.9 to 1 for girls and 1.7 to 1 for boys; and for 14 year olds compared to 13 year olds, the ratio is 1.4 to 1 for both sexes.

Figure 6
The prevalence of recorded delinquency from ages 5 to 17, by sex (females scaled up)

Although the prevalence of recorded delinquency is higher among males than females at all ages, the relationship between the prevalence of male and female offenders varies with age. This is shown in Figure 7 by the sex ratio: the ratio of the rate of recorded male prevalence to that of female offenders. It is highest for young children, and declines to a minimum at 14 years, after which it begins to rise again. More than 10 times as many 5 year old boys as girls were apprehended, but only 1.9 times as many 14 year old boys as girls.²

Figure 7
The sex ratio of prevalence of recorded delinquency from ages 5 to 17

Notes

The term "sex" is used in this study in preference to "gender", since the UCR2 Survey records the "sex" of apprehended persons.
The increase in the sex ratio at the age of 9 occurs in both cohorts, and is due to an unexplained jump at that age in the number of recorded male offenders, while the number of recorded female offenders follows the overall age-related trend.