Reform and Resistance: Gender, Delinquency, and America's First Juvenile Court

by Knupfer,Anne Meis

• ISBN13: 9780415925983
• ISBN10: 0415925983
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781136691805
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-08-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Working in a tradition established by pioneering historians like Kathy Preiss, Lizabeth Cohen, and George Chauncey, Ann Meis Knupfer has written the first thorough study of the Cook County Juvenile Court in Chicago, one of the myriad Progressive initiatives designed to impose order on an increasingly diverse turn-of-the-century American city. From its inception the Court concerned itself primarily with "incorrigible" girls - those young (often immigrant or African-American) women caught riding in a closed automobile, loitering in a department store, or shimmying on the dance floor. Knupfer approaches encounters between delinquents and this new arm of the state as a series of narratives promulgated by legal operatives, state bureaucrats, female social workers, and the girls themselves. Using the elastic term "delinquency" as their canvas, these parties painted conflicting portraits of modernizing America. They told stories about the emergence of the state, the gendered nature of professionalism, the dangers(and promise) of consumer culture, and the possibility of pluralism. Combining rigorous research with passionate writing,Reform and Resistanceprovides a unique examination of adolescence, sex, delinquency, race, and gender.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(12)
Part One: The Professionalization of Delinquency
Female Delinquency	13	(22)
Social Reform and Sociology
Psychomedical Models of Delinquency	35	(12)
The ``Helping'' Professions	47	(20)
Female Probation and Police Officers and African-American Social Workers
Part Two: Delinquent Girls In and Out of the Juvenile Court
Work and Leisure in Delinquent Girls' Lives	67	(12)
The Cook County Juvenile Court and Delinquent Girls	79	(20)
The Chicago Detention Home and Juvenile Psychopathic Institute	99	(22)
Part Three: Reform Institutions for Delinquent Girls
The Chicago Home for Girls	121	(18)
The State Industrial School for Delinquent Girls in Geneva, Illinois	139	(20)
The House of the Good Shepherd	159	(18)
Conclusion	177	(4)
Appendix One: Notes on Primary Sources	181