In the Company of Women: Structure and Agency in a Revised Power‐control Theory of Gender and Delinquency*

Abstract

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 practices, especially for mothers and sons. We find that variation in mothers' agency within the home affects their sons' support of conventional views, in particular, attitudes about the gendered nature of activities, 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.

The Role of Parental Maltreatment and Parental Social Control on Self-Reported Violent Offending in Indonesia and the U.S.: Does Gender Make a Difference?

“…Previous research that has examined cultural differences in parenting has found that socioeconomic factors have a stronger impact on parental social control than cultural factors [118] but in this study we do not control for class. We also expect this to relate to the fact that the sample of Indonesian youths were drawn from major cities in Indonesia, where the power-control dynamic between parents may resemble balanced households in the U.S. [71]. Therefore, we do not find support for Hypothesis 5.…”

“…First, patriarchal families involve hierarchical structures through which parental control is exercised differentially through male domination. The assumption is that men have higher class positions in patriarchal families, and this imbalance provides fathers with greater resources to establish male dominance [71]. Parents exercise more control over daughters than sons, which allows daughters to become more risk averse and less likely to engage in delinquent acts.…”

“…The moderating effect of gender on the association between parental supervision and self-reported violent delinquency will be stronger in Indonesia than in the U.S. with parental control [99]. The U.S., like other Western countries, is signaling towards more balanced and less patriarchal households due to more women entering the labor market, liberalization of family laws and the recognition of feminist ideals and perspectives [71]. Similar economic and cultural changes are occurring in Indonesia, though changes in gender relations remains slow and patriarchal values still dominate social institutions [100].…”

“…In doing so, we try to avoid differential connotations of constructs that usually plague cross-cultural research [110]. Additionally, variables drawn from power-control theory are conceptualized as latent constructs that cannot be measured directly [71,78,80]. Table 1 provides the single variable descriptions of our key variables for the overall sample.…”

“…As anticipated, the level of parental supervision in Indonesia (4.13) appears to be slightly higher than in the U.S. (3.87). We use the measure of parental supervision as a proxy for control exercised by parents towards their children based on previous research that supports the use of latent constructs for power-control variables [71,78,80].…”