| Almost: ten years after the State of Israel was established, a whole range of controls regulating juvenile delinquency, aiming to treat, punish, and discipline young offenders were developed. The paper examines the ways these regulations originated in the fears of various groups from among the large-scale immigration to Israel during the 1950s and the responses of these groups to the social uprising of the Black Panthers during the early) 70s. The paper further demonstrates that attitudes towards youth delinquents were absorbed with the construction of citizenship in the developing civil society in Israel. These constructions that recruited conceptions of public hygiene, purity and moral order unfolded in the context of citizenship struggles which were about (re)constructing good citizens who conformed and (re)producing those who failed to measure up. It examines the role of new forms of social scientific knowledge about juvenile delinquents and the influence of professionals claiming the ability to scientifically separate the normal from the deviant and the salvageable from the incorrigible. The authoritative, scientific voices of experts gained a monopoly over a range of moral behavior and public health concerns and soon, these professionals became an important group considered able to determine the citizenship status of Israeli populations.
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Updated 05/20/2006