Even as the number of females processed through juvenile courts climbs steadily, an implicit agreement remains among scholars in criminal justice that young males define the delinquency problem in the United States. We suggest two reasons why this view persists. First, young females are accused primarily of victimless crimes, such as truancy, that do not involve clear-cut damage to persons or property. If c0mmitted by adults, these actions are not even considered prosecutable if committed by young males, they have traditionally been looked on leniently by the courts. Thus, ironically, the difficult conditions of female delinquents receive little attention because they are accused of committing relatively minor offenses. Second, the courts have long justified so-called preventive intervention into the lives of young females viewed as antisocial with the reasoning that women are especially vulnerable. Traditional ideas of women as the weaker and more dependent sex have led to earlier intervention and longer periods of misdirected supervision for female delinquents than for males. Which of the following best expresses the irony pointed out by the author of the passage?