"These wandering viruses." Views and practices regarding delinquent girls with venereal disease (Belgium, 1912-1950)

François, Aurore [UCL] Massin, Veerle [UCL]

This research deals with two intertwined phenomena that emerged between the 19(th) and 20(th) centuries, and that developed until the Second World War: the implementation of the 'Child protection' system on the one hand, within which juvenile courts were set up and a specific justice was applied to minors, and an active sanitary policy on the other hand, which was strengthened during both World Wars, and that particularly applied to venereal diseases. Among the cases presented before the juvenile courts, we can see a particular concern for the sexuality of young women, as these were potentially under the threat of a series of irreversible 'risks': premarital sex, early pregnancy, prostitution and venereal diseases. Through a double sociological and medical argumentation, these were considered as risks not only for the young woman with a disease, but also for those she might contaminate, for her future children, for the preservation of morality, and even 'race'. Although some sources front minor protection institutions show that young boys appeared as likely to be contaminated by these diseases as girls, the criminological views and screening practices were only applied to young women. In the wake of the First World War, considerable means were raised in order to treat and re-educate these young women ill institutions for minor convicts, which testifies more than anything to the fears raised by this issue. As several private institutions specialised in the treatment of minors with venereal diseases, the government dedicated its full attention to the issue by creating the Asile-clinique (Asylum Clinic) in Barges. For decades, juvenile court judges sent their wards to these institutions so that they could benefit from state of the art medical treatment and educative measures meant to make them healthy and well-behaved young women. The organisation and the treatments that were provided in these institutions, a complex mix of moral and medical considerations, are a practical example of this convergence of interests between sanitary concerns of the medical body and the project of 'remoralisation' of female youth, as it was supported by the practitioners of child protection during the first half of the 20(th) century.