Ces ‘virus ambulants’. Discours et pratiques à l’égard des filles de justice atteintes de maladies vénériennes (Belgique, 1912-1950)

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

Discusses two intertwined phenomena that emerged during the 19th and 20th centuries and that developed until World War II, namely, 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 health 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, there was a particular concern for the sexuality of young women, 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 but also for those she might contaminate, for her future children, for the preservation of morality, and even "race." Although some sources from minors' protection institutions show that 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 World War I, much was spent to treat and reeducate these young women in institutions for minors, testimony to the fears raised by this issue. The government dedicated its full attention to the issue by creating the Asile-Clinique in Bruges. For decades, juvenile court judges sent their wards to these institutions so that they could benefit from state-of-the-art medical treatment and educational measures. The organization and the treatments that were provided in these institutions, a complex mix of moral and medical considerations, were a practical example of the convergence of interests between health concerns of the medical body and the project of the "remoralization" of female youth, as it was supported by the practitioners of child protection during the first half of the 20th century.