The politics of neglect: policing, institutionalising, and providing for ‘neglected children’ in late nineteenth-century Queensland (1881-1900)

Abstract

This article examines the political forces which influenced the treatment of children legally classified as ‘neglected’ in Queensland, Australia, between 1881 and 1900. It focuses on the two government-run institutions which held ‘neglected children’: The Reformatory School for Boys and the Industrial and Reformatory School for Girls. The article identifies tensions between a range of state and private actors which resulted in a patchwork of uneven and inconsistent institutional responses to ‘neglected’ children within a single jurisdiction.