This book provides a detailed study of approved schools for girls, which operated in England and Wales between 1933-1973. Through original archival research, it examines the transition of provision for girls and young women 'in trouble' from the large scale post-Victorian reformatories to the therapeutic Community Homes for Education and shows the emergence of a 'diagnostic shift' in the provision of state care for children in the juvenile secure estate. It reveals a more nuanced understanding of the role approved schools played in the state care of children and young people in need of care, protection, or control during this period. It evidences gendered use of care or protection orders throughout, weighted towards young women, since between sixty and seventy-five percent of girls within the schools overall were the subject of such orders in comparison to less than five percent of boys. It shows that younger girls were routinely committed to the schools for offences under the Education Act, suggesting this legislation was used to police child and family behaviours. It also demonstrates that larceny was the dominant crime for which the remaining girls were committed to the schools. Finally, it demonstrates a marked change from the 1930s approaches to reform as rescue through to the framing of behaviour as a variety of mental health disorders by the 1970s.

Book Information
ISBN 9783031651076
Author Jessamy Carlson
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
Publisher Springer International Publishing AG