NCJ Number
129621
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 37 Issue: 2 Dated: special issue (April 1991) Pages: 186-203
Date Published
1991
Length
18 pages
Annotation
The origins and implementations of a policy and a formal institutional apparatus to discipline female delinquents in early 20th century Los Angeles were analyzed.
Abstract
Data derived from original case files of 220 delinquent girls on whom petitions were filed in 1920 were analyzed to determine the social backgrounds of the girls, the behaviors that brought them into court, and the process and results of adjudication. An attempt is made to shed light particularly on the juvenile court's basic operations, the social and institutional setting in which modern responses to female delinquency emerged, and the characteristics of the girls petitioned to court. In the early 20th century, the juvenile court and its allied institutions defined delinquency in radically different ways for boys and girls and continued to articulate and enforce a strict code of moral behavior and decorum among adolescent working-class females. The data between 1920 and 1950 indicate that the overwhelming majority of girls charged with delinquency continued to be status and moral offenders, predominantly white, working-class, and from single-parent families. According to juvenile court, sexual activity per se still largely defined female delinquency. The juvenile court's original concern for containing and punishing female sexuality remained fully operational until the dawn of the modern women's movement. 10 notes and 39 references (Author abstract modified)