Working Mothers and Juvenile Delinquency (Criminal Justice, Recent Scholarship)

"Mother-blame," blaming mothers for their children's anti-social behavior, is a common theme of social critics and policymakers. Critics charge that mothers have chosen work over parenting and that their children have suffered due to a loss of supervision and support. Their children are, therefore, more likely to commit crime. This study explores the relationship between maternal work and juvenile delinquency. The effects of maternal work are traced through a variety of delinquency pathways to delinquency. The results demonstrate that maternal work has little or no effect on family processes or on juvenile delinquency. Instead, Vander Ven suggests that variables measuring structural disadvantage are more important predictors of negative family processes and delinquent behavior in adolescents.