Against a backdrop of increasing popular concern about teenage street ‘gangs’, student violence in schools, high levels of youth joblessness and its perceived relationship to crime, substance abuse, suicide and homelessness, this article explores some of the biological explanations of ‘juvenile anti-social behaviour’. One of the many spheres in which eugenics has been influential is education, particularly in its application of psychology, intelligence testing and similar mechanisms for ensuring citizenship and the self-governance of young people. The article contextualises and critically analyses some of the current debates about education and young people within a critical historical analysis of eugenics.
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