Now is the Time to Fight”
Juvenile Delinquency, Drug Addiction, and the Construction of a Moral Program in Postwar Toronto, 1945–1960
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12970773 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Holly M Karibo (corresponding author), Holly Karibo |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 262-285 |
| Publication date | 2008-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Social History of Alcohol Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0887-2783 • E-ISSN: 2640-7329 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/shad22020262 |
| OpenAlex | W2898220350 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
Despite the fact that federal and provincial reports consistently refuted the existence of widespread teen drug use in Toronto between 1945 and 1960, local newspapers continued to raise the spectre of youth addiction. As a result, middle class readers began to view drug use as a pressing social problem afflicting kids throughout the city. The fear of drug-addicted teens emerged within broader contemporary discourses on juvenile delinquency, and linked the consumption of illicit substances to the perceived deterioration of postwar Canadian society. These concerns were sparked in part by the rapid social changes brought about by World War II, and by a subsequent conservative backlash among a middle class who wanted to restore “traditional” institutions. Teenage delinquency (and by extension drug addiction) was one avenue through which affluent city residents expressed their concerns over shifting social relations and expressions of power. Toward this end, the media of the period unanimously echoed the demands of Toronto’s middle class to urgently address the “problem” of wayward teens. This growing public concern was not a rational response to a dramatically increasing problem among the city’s youths, but was instead constructed within the moral hegemony of a middle class attempting to draw clear distinctions between “normal,” healthy teenagers, and deeply troubled “delinquents.”
Addiction · Consumption (sociology · Criminology · Hegemony · Juvenile delinquency · Media studies · Middle class · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Psychiatry · Social science · Sociology · American Political and Social Dynamics · Canadian Identity and History · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Law · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
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