"Children's talk and parental fear". Cases of sexual misconduct in Danish state schools 1900-1970

Journal of Historical Sociology

Volumn 21, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 513-534

  De Coninck Smith, Ning ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 57649170737     PISSN: 09521909     EISSN: 14676443     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2008.00348.x     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. This paper is a revised version of "Børnenes Snak og Forældrenes Frygt" Uterlighedssager i den danske folkeskole 1900-1970 in Ning de Coninck-Smith, Skolen, lærerne, eleverne og forældrene. 10 kapitler af den danske folkeskoles historie i det 19. og 20. århundrede, Århus, Klim, 2002, 169-196.
2. st Off., 2677/1942. Before 1916 the Ministry of Education [Undervisningsministeriet UM] would be called the Ministry of the Church and Education, abbreviated as Kultusministeriet [KM].
3. st Off. 2677/1942, summary of old case no. 1454/ 1929.
4. st Off. 2677/1942, case 1454/1929.
5. st Off., 2677/1942. (emphasis in the original).
6. st Off., 2677/1942.
7. A. Barfoed, Håndbog i Lovgivningen om den danske Folkeskole. København, Gyldendal, 1950, 368.
8. The word "paedophilia" or "paedophile" is registered in the dictionary of the Danish language for the first time in 1964. Pia Jarvad, Nye ord, 1955-1998, København, Gyldendal, 1999, 692. Historically the terms "improper", "sexual misconduct" and "immorality" were used. The latter could, however, also cover other immoral behaviour such as alcoholism, card-playing or financial irregularity. In what follows I use the term "sexual misconduct" and "paedophilia" by turns.
9. st Office 717/1926, which include a list of §8 cases with case numbers until 1926. Statutary wage and salary regulations §8, introduced in 1908, made it possible for local school authorities to dismiss a teacher without pension, if it was judged that the teacher's relations with the children or the local population were such that teaching was seriously impaired. Until 1933 there was no right of appeal, and the section aroused extreme indignation in teaching circles. See Hanne Rimmen Nielsen, Teacher Dismissals and Local Conflicts in Danish Schools, 1908-1933 in Kate Rousmaniere et al. (eds.), Discipline, Moral Regulation, and Schooling. A Social History. New York, Garland, 1997, 135-160. Literature and debates deriving from medical science and psychology are only included sporadically.
10. This applies, for example, to a case referred to in a document written by the Ministry of Culture on 25.05.1904, record no.: AF 1472, 1904.
11. See Henrik Lehman, Haandbog i Lovgivningen om den danske Folkeskole, 1917, 366.
12. st Off. 1857/1941.
13. Straffelovrådets udtalelse om strafferetlige aldersgrænser for seksuelle forhold, København, Betænkning nr. 747, 1975, 9.
14. See also Børnesagens Tidende, 1919-20, 284-289.
15. The Ministry of Justice circular no. 158 of the 16.07.1938.
16. nd Off. 46-02-05/1970, minute of 13.05.1971, Sv. O. Bruun.
17. See Christian Graugaard, Professor Sands høns - om sexualbiologi i mellemkrigstidens Danmark, Ph.D. dissertation, Copenhagen University, 1997, 117.
18. st Off., 1681/1951, internal minute of 08.12.1958. See also case no. 1534/1950.
19. Carol Smart "A History of Ambivalence and Conflict in the Discursive Construction of the "Child Victim of Sexual Abuse." Social and Legal Studies 8(3) 1999: 391-409;
20. K.J. Taylor, "Veneral Disease in Nineteenth-Century Children." The Journal of Psychohistory 12(4) 1985: 431-463.
21. O. M. Giersing, Statistik over veneriske Sygdomme i Danmark i Tiaaret 1871-80. Kjøbenhavn, 1884, 34 (emphasis in the original);
22. C. Rasch, "Meddelelser fra Kommunehospitalets Poliklinik for Hudsygdomme og veneriske Sygdomme (Dec. 1893-Dec.1897)." HospitalsTidende 6, 1889: 1180-1186, 1226-1229, 1237-42, 1263-1269.
23. H. Oosterhuis, Stepchildren of Nature: Krafft-Ebing, Psychiatry, and the Making of Sexual Identity. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2000, 34.
24. Betænkning afgiven af det af Justitsministeriet den 23. Oktober 1908 nedsatte Udvalg til Fastsættelsen af Regler for Afgørelsen af Spørgsmaalet om Tidspunktet for Tilstedeværelsen af Smittefarlighed. Kjøbenhavn; and K.J. Taylor, Veneral Disease.
25. Carol Smart, A History of Ambivalence; Ning de Coninck-Smith, "Stadsarkitekt Ludvig Fengers skoler i 1880'ernes og 90'ernes København." Historiske Meddelelser om København, 1986, 63-87.
26. Karin Lützen, Byen tæmmes. Kernefamilie, sociale reformer og velgørenhed i 1800-tallets København. København, Hans Reitzels Forlag, 1998, 363-390;
27. Anne Løkke, Vildfarende Børn - om forsømte og kriminelle børn mellem filantropi og stat 1880-1920, København, Forlaget SocPol, 1990;
28. Ning de Coninck-Smith, Internatenes og skolens historie. Eller: "Den lille indespærring" Et bidrag til skulkeriets historie i Danmark fra 1875 til ca. 1914 in Ning de Coninck-Smith, Skolen, lærerne, eleverne - og forældrene 10 kapitler af den danske folkeskoles historie i det 19. og 20. århundrede, Aarhus, KLIM, 2002, 125-147.
29. Ning de Coninck-Smith, For barnets skyld. Byen, skolen og barndommen 1880-1914. København, Gyldendal, 2000, 83.
30. Kvinden og Samfundet 1906, 109.
31. Wilhelm von Rosen, W., Månens Kulør. Studier i dansk bøssehistorie 1628-1912. København, Rhodos, 1993, 720, 747-749.
32. KM. 2Off. AN 2580/1911.
33. Kvinden og Samfundet, 1906, 117,
34. Ugeskrift for Retsvæsen, 1907, 113-115, Juristen 1927, 172.
35. st Off. 937/1943.
36. Beth Grothe Nielsen, "Børn som ofre og vidner i sager om seksuelle overgreb." Nordisk Tidsskrift for Kriminalvidenskab, 1992, 40;
37. G. S. Goodman, "Children's Testimony in Historical Perspective." Journal of Social Issues 40(2) 1984, 9-31;
38. Juristen, 1927, 171-73.
39. st Off. 116/1923.
40. st Off. 2289/1934.
41. It was published in Meddelelser om Folkeskolen, Seminarierne, m.m.
42. See also A. Barfoed, "Afskedigelse af lærere i folkeskolen." Nordisk Administrativt Tidsskrift, 1936, 155-178.
43. Dansk Seminarieblad, no. 1, April 1943, 2.
44. st Off. 399/1940, 1594/1940, 2677/1942, 937/1943.
45. st Off. 2289/1934.
46. Dansk Seminarieblad, no. 1, April 1943, 2.
47. Folkeskolen, no. 9, 1944, 168; no 33, 1944, 621.
48. A. Barfoed, Håndbog, 398-99.
49. st Off. 46-02-06/1967, in which a teacher relates how he had been told at teacher training college that he must not touch pupils.
50. st. Off. 817/1949, 801/1949 and 1400/1949.
51. st Off. 1163/1926, 1857/ 1941, 1506/1942, 288/1942, 937/1943.
52. Lene Koch, Racehygiejne i Danmark 1920-56, København, Gyldendal, 1996, 62-3;
53. Jens Christensen, K.K. Steincke. Mennesket og politikeren. En biografi. København, Christian Ejlers' Forlag, 1998, 240-44.
54. Contemporary surveys were not in agreement as to whether figures had risen or remained stable in relation to the level before the Second World War. The difference depended among other things on whether they related to the whole country, or to conditions in Copenhagen and on the categories that were used. A national survey published in Kvinden og Samfundet (the magazine of the Danish Society of Women) 1953, pp. 152-3,
55. showed, a virtual doubling of the number of cases of fornication with children under the age of 15 in the period 1945-49, after which the numbers began to fall. By contrast police inspector A. Haslund in a round table discussion maintained that the number in Copenhagen had "over a large number of years" remained at a more or less constant level. Børnesagens Tidende, no. 20, vol. 48, 1953, 427.
56. Børnesagens Tidende, vol. 51, 1956, 305.
57. On the movement for educational reform, see Ellen Nørgaard, Lille barn, hvis er du? En skolehistorisk undersøgelse over reformbestræbelser inden for den danske folkeskole i mellemkrigstiden. København, Gyldendal, 1977.
58. Undated note, 1916. Udvalget vedr. Sædelighedsforbrydelser, case 1 a.
59. See also typed note, 1925. Kommentar til Forslaget til alm. Borgerlig Straffelov, fremsat 2.12.1924, Archive of Dansk Kvindesamfund [The Danish Society of Women]. Kvindehistorisk Samling, [Collection of Women's History], Aarhus.
60. Nye ord, 692.
61. von Rosen Månens kulør, 16.
62. During the same years the Parliament voted the so-called "ugly law", which raised the age limit for homosexual prostitution from 18 to 21 in 1961. The provision was retracted four years later. Straffelovsrå dets udtalelse om, 11.
63. Jens Jersild, Barnet og det homoseksuelle Spørgsmål. Københavns Skolevæsen, 1957, 26, 49.
64. Black lists were according to Jersild also in use within recognised corps and youth associations ibid., 69.
65. Estelle B. Freedman, " "Uncontrolled Desires". The Response to the Sexual Psychopath 1920-1960." Journal of American History (June), 1987, 83-106.
66. st Off. 46-02-06/1967 and 46-02-04/1969.
67. st Off. 46-02-05/1964.
68. st Off. 46-02-06/1967.
69. st Off. 46-02-11/69.
70. st Off. 46-02-04/1969.
71. st Off. 46-02-04/1969.
72. Freedmann, Uncontrolled Desires, 105.
73. nd Off. 121/1910.
74. nd Off. AN 2580/1911.
75. st Off. 937/1943.
76. st Off. 184/1956, 585/ 1940, 937/1943, 1462/1958, 755/1951, 1806/1957, 585/1940.
77. st Off. 1841/1956.
78. Kvinden og Samfundet 6, 1924, p. 71.
79. For disciplinary actions against female teachers, see Rimmen Nielsen, Teachers Dismissals.