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Nordic Girlhoods pp 137–159Cite as

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When the Problem of Incorrigible Girls Became a Problem of Psychopathy

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Abstract

Bolette Frydendahl Larsen explores the history of defining female juvenile delinquency through the emergence of the notion of psychopathy in the re-education of girls in interwar Denmark. The chapter argues that the category of psychopathy was used in the pragmatic management of the girls in re-education and that it also enabled a call for increased resources to solve the problem of female juvenile delinquency. Contrary to most studies of psychopathy, this analysis takes into account not only discursive formations within psychiatry and among professionals in residential care, but also the institutional resources and practices in the specific settings in which the category was used.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Bolette Frydendahl Larsen

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  1. Bolette Frydendahl Larsen
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Correspondence to Bolette Frydendahl Larsen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (UCGS), Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Bodil Formark

  2. Finnish Youth Research Network, Helsinki, Finland

    Heta Mulari

  3. Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Myry Voipio

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Frydendahl Larsen, B. (2017). When the Problem of Incorrigible Girls Became a Problem of Psychopathy. In: Formark, B., Mulari, H., Voipio, M. (eds) Nordic Girlhoods . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65118-7_8

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