Youth Criminality in Institutional Child Care: Gender Perspective

In my theses, I focus on the problem of criminal behavior of under-age children who have been placed because of their previous illegal behaviour in state facilities for execution of institutional and protective care. I apply a gender perspective - I primarily focus on under-age girls' criminal behavior, which has been so far neglected by both theorists and empirically oriented scholars. The main research goal is to identify motives underlying girls' criminal behavior. The investigative part (research) is based on a case study carried out in a concrete diagnostic institution. It is based on semistructured interviewing of selected girls. Key words: criminality, delinquency, risk behaviour, gender, heteronormativity, institutional care, interpretative (constructivist) paradigm