ABSTRACT
Contemporary theoretical arguments in criminology contend that crime can be understood only through conceptualization of "predisposition" and "criminal event". Contemporary criminological work argues that the family is strongly and directly related to youth crime. Such "family process variables" as lack of parental attachment, supervision, and discipline are said to be the most "important family correlates of serious, persistent delinquency". The importance of corporeal differentiation notwithstanding, the school also organizes masculine difference and inequality through constructs of sexuality. Adolescence is a time in life when agency and body become connected to sexuality. For all the sex offenders and assaultive offenders an important part of engagement with hegemonic masculinity entailed a predisposition to physical violence. The culture of cruelty constructs hierarchy among boys and demands, as does the broader working-class culture, that boys respond to such abuse through physical violence. Past criminological research and theory neglect the relationship among masculinity, sexuality, and violence.
