Defining deviance

Description:

Drawing on the case files of the State Training school of Geneva, Illinois, the author presents a history of delinquent girls in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Focusing on contemporary perceptions of gender, sexuality, class, disability and eugenics, the work examines the involuntary commitment of girls and young women deemed by reformers to be "defective" and shows both the dominant social trends of the day as well as the ways in which the victims of these policies sought to mitigate their conditions.

subjects: Inmates of institutions,  Female sex offenders,  History,  Sex offenders,  Institutional care,  Female offenders,  Eugenics,  Legislation & jurisprudence,  Institutionalized Child,  Institutionalized Adolescent,  Women,  Social Behavior Disorders,  Prostitution,  Juvenile Delinquency,  Female juvenile delinquents,  Law and legislation,  Sex Work

Places: United States