Wayward Girls in Victorian and Edwardian England - (History of Crime, Deviance and Punishment) by Tahaney Alghrani (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

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 Era pays 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.

Review Quotes

"This is an important book [...] This is fresh research into nineteenth-century girls' education and dresses and gender imbalance. [...] The material is neatly presented in a compact book with easily navigated chapter, useful tables, and images." --BAVS

"Alghrani's book makes an original contribution to the field of youth justice and institutional histories ...adding to substantive knowledge of female reformatories ... brings out the fascinating and agentic lives of the girls caught up within these institutions... [and] uses an historical criminological approach to reflect on, and inform, current debates. It calls for us to stop recycling the custodial institutions of the past that marginalise girls even further, asking us instead to re-imagine alternatives in future policy and practice." --Punishment & Society

About the Author