Wayward Girls in Victorian and Edwardian England: Pathways In and Out of Juvenile Institutions, 1854-1920 [Paperback]

Exploring the reform and regulation of juvenile females in the Victorian and early Edwardian era, this book presents the first-hand experiences of incarcerated girls to shed new light on youth criminalisation in the past and the present.

Focusing on three industrial schools in Bristol and Manchester,Wayward Girls in Victorian Erapays particular attention to gender, age and class to understand how these factors impacted an individual's passage through the Victorian juvenile system. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, it examines representations of deviance and immorality as well as behaviour regulation to bring girls into a field of study previously dominated by male and adult offenders. Asking questions about how to 'reform' delinquent juveniles, this book also uses history to rethink the present and contribute to current debates about juvenile delinquency and reform.

One of the study's contributions lies in its detailed documentation of the institutional treatment of delinquent girls in two cities that, while not marginal, were smaller urban centres. This perspective makes it possible to understand concretely how the reformatory and industrial school model was applied in differing urban contexts and to assess the adaptations it underwent. Histoire sociale / Social History (Bloomsbury translation)

This volume is useful reading for those interested in the history of childhood, and in the history of juvenile justice. It supports existing scholarship on girls in the secure estate, reinforcing the findings of several eminent scholars and doing so with meticulous scholarship and nuanced research across a range of sources. History of Education