This paper is an application of attribution theory to the processing of juvenile delinquents in an attempt to understand the differential treatment of female and male offenders within the juvenile justice system. The paper explores the attributions of juvenile delinquency both by male and female minors, by male and female parents, and by male and female probation officers. The dependent variables are the respondents' causal explanations along an internal-external continuum and along a criminal-medical continuum. The results confirmed earlier laboratory findings that females tend to give more internal attributions of their own and others' behavior when a negative event is involved than do males. Female delinquents blamed themselves and other delinquents more than male delinquents did. Female probation officers blamed the minor more than did male officers, regardless of the sex of the minor. Mothers of delinquents were more likely to blame their child, as well as themselves (their family), than were the fathers of delinquents. Female delinquency was explained differently from male delinquency and was seen as more deviant than male. (Author/IRT)