Turning Bad Girls Into Ladies: Female Juvenile Delinquency in Texas in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

This thesis examines the social constructs of gender and race in Texas' Juvenile Justice system after World War II. The Texas Youth Commission attempted to transform wayward girls by enforcing rules, regulations, and curricula that reinforced socially prescribed gender roles. However, these rules, regulations, curricula, and expectations depended on the girl's race. This thesis also places post-war Texas juvenile delinquency into a larger Cold War context.