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Wed 22 March
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    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Thu 23 March
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    16:30

Fri 24 March
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Sat 25 March
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Wednesday 22 March 2006 8:30
Q-1 CRI01 Experiences with delinquency and the justice system
Room N1-O1
Network: Criminal Justice Chair: Jean Trépanier
Organizer: Jean Trépanier Discussant: Jean Trépanier
Marcela Aranguiz : Juvenile Courts at the Beginning of the XXth Century: New Practice or More of the Same?
Existing literature tends to present the advent of juvenile courts at the
beginning of the XXth century as a major shift in policy regarding the
treatment of youthful offenders. However research has focused mainly on
the study of discourse rather than practice. Little is known on the way
criminal courts actually dealt with young ... (Show more)
Existing literature tends to present the advent of juvenile courts at the
beginning of the XXth century as a major shift in policy regarding the
treatment of youthful offenders. However research has focused mainly on
the study of discourse rather than practice. Little is known on the way
criminal courts actually dealt with young people before juvenile courts
came into existence. We lack comparative data about the practice of those
courts and that of juvenile courts. Was the shift in official policy
followed by a shift in actual practice? Were criminal court dealings with
juveniles much different from those of the juvenile courts that succeeded
them? Could the ideas that led to the establishment of juvenile courts
have found their way into - and influenced - the practice of criminal
court judges prior to the existence of juvenile courts? In the following
years, did the practice of the newly created juvenile courts still retain
some of the approaches that characterized the way criminal courts had
handled juveniles in previous years? In brief, did youngsters undergo a
similar or a different court experience before and after the advent of the
juvenile court? This paper will present results from a research carried
out in Montreal (Canada) on the judicial treatment of juvenile offenders
before and after the establishment of a juvenile court in 1912. An attempt
will be made to clarify the extent to which the way juveniles were dealt
with actually changed with the advent of the juvenile court. (Show less)

Lee Polansky : “One of the Worst Little Creatures I Ever Came in Contact With”: The Delinquent Girl and the Juvenile Justice System in Georgia, 1914-1924
As Progressive Era reformers in the United States sought to identify and ameliorate the problems caused by industrialization and urbanization, the criminal justice and social service systems became increasingly interested in the “wayward girl problem.” Historians including Mary Odem and Ruth Alexander have found that the actions of many working ... (Show more)
As Progressive Era reformers in the United States sought to identify and ameliorate the problems caused by industrialization and urbanization, the criminal justice and social service systems became increasingly interested in the “wayward girl problem.” Historians including Mary Odem and Ruth Alexander have found that the actions of many working class adolescent girls–whether those actions were overtly sexual or were merely rebellious–became increasingly criminalized as middle class definitions of female behavioral standards were tightened. With the establishment of institutions purporting to treat delinquency, “reformers” used their authority to commit girls to reform schools to be “trained” to become proper wives and mothers.

As the southern part of the country, including Georgia, also urbanized, more working class and poor white girls migrated from the countryside, seeking factory and mill jobs–as well as excitement and change. By the early 1900s, middle class reformers were joining their non-Southern counterparts in complaining about the increasing number of delinquent girls that seemed to be visible throughout cities and towns. These girls refused to behave according to standards deemed proper for women, engaging in a range of transgressive behavior: stealing; skipping work and school; exchanging sex with men for “favors”; and even prostituting. Responding to the public perception that the “wayward girl” problem was a serious threat to public morals and racial order, in 1914, the Georgia Training School for Girls (GTS) was opened, becoming one of the first reform schools for white girls in the South.

Historians of delinquency, particularly David Wolcott, have found that the relationships between juvenile delinquents and the juvenile justice system were more fluid and dialectical than we might have assumed, suggesting some degree of empowerment by those who might have been only “victims.” This paper uses the Georgia Training School for Girls’ manuscript collection, which includes personal and administrative correspondence related to girls’ cases, to examine the complex relationships–pre-GTS commitment and post-GTS commitment–that “wayward” girls developed with reformers. Juvenile justice workers, including the police, social workers, court workers, probation officers, and judges, involved with the GTS had a surprising degree of latitude when deciding how to handle a girl’s case. This paper looks at some of the reasons behind decisions to send a girl to the GTS. At the same time, the paper examines the degree of power girls had when interacting with reformers. Girls often used these relationships to their own benefit after they left the GTS, to help shape a “new” life–or to gain tangible goods, such as jobs or housing. (Show less)

Lotta Vikström : Causes and Consequences of Individual Misconduct in the Past: Juvenile Delinquents and Their Demographic Path Compared to that of 'Ordinary' Youths in the Nineteenth-Century Sundsvall Region, Sweded
The rising criminality became lively discussed at the turn of the nineteenth century. A moral panic characterized the debate and the Swedish government conducted an investigation in 1896. It concluded that the rise in criminality would damage the societal order and moral status of the population. The presentation focuses on ... (Show more)
The rising criminality became lively discussed at the turn of the nineteenth century. A moral panic characterized the debate and the Swedish government conducted an investigation in 1896. It concluded that the rise in criminality would damage the societal order and moral status of the population. The presentation focuses on the period when this worry was established and also included the Sundsvall region in northern Sweden. Because of the rapid development of the sawmill industry it became one of Europe’s fastest expanding areas in the second part of the century.

Prisoner registers are addressed to illuminate delinquents aged 15-25 and arrested in 1840-1880. Demographic determinants are emphasized by analyzing about 400 individuals when they committed crime and relate it to their experience prior to crime and after. Swedish parish records, computerized by the Demographic Database (DDB), Umeå University, are linked to the prison registers as these distinguish whether a past vulnerability preceded misconduct. They also allow for longitudinal life-course approaches that indicate whether juvenile delinquents suffered markedly from having confronted law and order by examining their relocation, marriage, career and untimely deaths.

The study shows that young lawbreakers were not only recruited from the bottom of the social strata. They were to a surprisingly degree rooted in the region and thereby had access to substantial, but insufficient, social networks. After incarceration a majority returned to the region where they generally took up employment and many of them even found a spouse. This suggests that the delinquents were confronted with tolerant attitudes.

However, to discuss more in detail the causes and consequences of criminal behavior, the demographic experiences of juvenile delinquents and their paths must be compared with the life-courses of young individuals who did not violent the law. A control cohort is therefore constructed. First, it helps discern whether the backgrounds of juvenile delinquents markedly differed from those of other youths. Second, such a comparative survey suggests whether they adjusted to life and society after misconduct or were faced with social exclusion. Quantitative measurements and statistical life-course analyses are employed to examine these issues and thereby approach the causes and consequences of individual misconduct. (Show less)



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