Saving Shame? Belgian Children’s Courts and Early Motherhood (1912-1965)

François, Aurore;Dumortier, Els
(2016) European Social Science History Conference - Session In the Name of the Child? Protecting and Educating Children ‘at Risk’ throughout the 20th – 21st Centuries — Location: Valencia (2.April.2016)

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From 1912 on hundreds of young pregnant girls were judged by the children’s courts in Belgium. If the fact of being pregnant was not a crime in itself, the Belgian juvenile justice system considered that these girls needed to be protected, as well as their infant(s). In numerous cases, these girls were placed in institutions and some of them were separated from their baby, supposedly “for their own good” and in spite of a series of problems related to mistreatment and neglect in these institutions. This paper focuses on the discourses and practices related to these two vulnerable populations – young single mothers and their illegitimate babies – who challenged the social and moral order, in a country that, as well as many others at this period, largely criminalized the adolescent female sexuality. But, if the early pregnancy, physical symptom of their sexual misconduct, continued to be perceived as shameful, another view emerged in child protection discourse, seeing motherhood as an opportunity to save young female delinquent from moral disruption. This paper aims to explore how these two competing discourses shaped the judicial practices of the Belgian juvenile courts. Also the role of experts in the construction of discourses and practices, conciliating the “interest of the child” with the “interest of society”, will be investigated.
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François, A., & Dumortier, E. (2016). Saving Shame? Belgian Children’s Courts and Early Motherhood (1912-1965). European Social Science History Conference - Session In the Name of the Child? Protecting and Educating Children ‘at Risk’ throughout the 20th – 21st Centuries, Valencia. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/226598