« Enfants en danger » et « enfants dangereux »
Résumé
Children in “Need of Care” and “Dangerous Children”. Expertise and Racial Differentiation in South Africa, 1937-1976
In the second half of the 1930s, South Africa implemented a new legislation with the intention of rehabilitating rather than punishing children. This article examines the role of a new set of experts in shaping this law and the effects of its implementation on the racial and social differentiation of children. It interrogates the meaning of change of a liberal public action in a context dominated by increasing racial discriminations. While the law set the conditions for a more systematic intervention of the state into the daily life of poor families, successive governments favored an individualization of treatment for white children as well as collectivization of sanctions for the black majority. This turnaround of public action came to be reinforced under the apartheid regime by disciplinary measures and by the triumph of a localized version of the Chicago School’s notions of social disorganization. This change contributed to the widespread use of violence among black children in socializing them to the harsh environment of prison and children’s institutions.
In the second half of the 1930s, South Africa implemented a new legislation with the intention of rehabilitating rather than punishing children. This article examines the role of a new set of experts in shaping this law and the effects of its implementation on the racial and social differentiation of children. It interrogates the meaning of change of a liberal public action in a context dominated by increasing racial discriminations. While the law set the conditions for a more systematic intervention of the state into the daily life of poor families, successive governments favored an individualization of treatment for white children as well as collectivization of sanctions for the black majority. This turnaround of public action came to be reinforced under the apartheid regime by disciplinary measures and by the triumph of a localized version of the Chicago School’s notions of social disorganization. This change contributed to the widespread use of violence among black children in socializing them to the harsh environment of prison and children’s institutions.
Dans la seconde moitié des années 1930, l’Afrique du Sud adopta une nouvelle loi sur l’enfance qui visait à réhabiliter davantage qu’à punir les enfants. Cet article s’interroge sur le rôle de nouveaux cercles d’experts dans la fabrique de cette loi et sur les effets de son application sur la différenciation sociale et raciale des enfants. Il analyse le sens du changement d’une action publique initialement libérale dans un contexte dominé par une discrimination raciale croissante. Alors que la loi créa les conditions pour une intervention plus systématique de l’État dans la vie des familles pauvres, les gouvernements successifs favorisèrent une individualisation des traitements pour les enfants blancs et une collectivisation de la sanction pour la majorité noire. Ce changement fut consolidé sous l’apartheid par un dispositif disciplinaire coercitif et par le triomphe d’une version localisée de la théorie de la désorganisation sociale de l’École de Chicago. Il contribua largement à la banalisation de l’usage de la violence chez les enfants noirs en les socialisant aux dures conditions de l’univers carcéral ou semi-carcéral des institutions de protection de l’enfance.
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