Female Juvenile Delinquency: A Nineteenth-Century Follow-up

Abstract

With the mid-nineteenth century's rapid industrialization and great increases in social displacement and crime came the estab lishment of the Industrial School for Girls in Lancaster, Mass.— the first of its kind in the United States. This paper examines the records of the first 250 girls committed to this school, between 1856 and 1861. Follow-up data are available on 184 of these girls, classifying them according to the following categories: good outcome, inadequate or poor outcome, grossly antisocial, chronic mental illness requiring hospitalization, and premature death. Excerpts taken from the girls' background reports are given as examples. Acknowledging the disturbing lack of research on female juvenile offenders, the authors offer this study in the hope that it provides a perspective on the present crisis in the management of young delinquents.