In 1954, members of a U.S. Special Senate Subcommittee traveled to El Paso, Texas, to study the issue of juvenile delinquency along the U.S.-Mexico border. The local paper, the El Paso Herald-Post, reported on the senators’ findings, claiming they uncovered a terrifying problem of delinquency among American teens who lived near Mexican border towns. In cities like Tijuana and Juarez, it declared, American “juveniles have been able to attain liquor, marihuana, barbiturates, heroin, and pornographic literature. Prostitution is wide open. There are steerers on every corner.” The article blamed the region’s close proximity to Mexico for the spread of delinquency among American teens: “We know the Mexican bordertowns help contribute to juvenile delinquency,” as did the growing number of “juvenile wetbacks” crossing into the U.S. The problem appeared to be so severe that senators were considering national legislation to bar anyone under the age of twenty-one from crossing the border into Mexico unaccompanied. Modeling their proposal on local policies already in place in San Diego, authorities warned that if they did not take decisive steps to control the national line, American youth would be at further risk.2 After all, American teens had become “troubled, drug-addicted, criminal oriented, and preoccupied with sex.”3 Border towns, it seems, were no place for them. This article explores national debates over juvenile delinquency as they emerged in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands during the post–World War II period. In doing so, it contributes to a robust literature that examines the rise of juvenile delinquency from multiple perspectives. As several historians have documented, postwar prosperity—when coupled with Cold War hysteria, economic transition, mass migration, and changes in family dynamics—helped spark fears that delinquency among teens was on the rise.4 Historians such as Matthew Lassiter have also detailed

中文翻译：

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有原因的反叛者：监管西南边疆地区的青少年犯罪

1954 年，美国参议院特别小组委员会的成员前往德克萨斯州的埃尔帕索，研究美墨边境的青少年犯罪问题。当地报纸《埃尔帕索先驱邮报》报道了参议员的调查结果，声称他们发现居住在墨西哥边境城镇附近的美国青少年存在一个可怕的犯罪问题。在蒂华纳和华雷斯这样的城市，它宣称，美国“青少年已经能够获得酒、大麻、巴比妥类药物、海洛因和色情文学。卖淫是敞开的。每个角落都有舵手。” 这篇文章指责该地区靠近墨西哥是美国青少年犯罪蔓延的原因：“我们知道墨西哥边境城镇有助于青少年犯罪”，越来越多的“少年湿背”进入美国也是如此 这个问题似乎非常严重，以至于参议员们正在考虑制定国家立法，禁止 21 岁以下的任何人在无人陪伴的情况下越境进入墨西哥。当局以圣地亚哥已经实施的地方政策为蓝本，警告说，如果他们不采取果断措施控制国家路线，美国青年将面临更大的风险。2 毕竟，美国青少年已经“陷入困境，吸毒”上瘾、犯罪倾向、全神贯注于性。”3 边境城镇似乎不适合他们。本文探讨了二战后美国和墨西哥边境地区出现的关于少年犯罪的全国性辩论。在这样做的过程中，它有助于从多个角度审视青少年犯罪的兴起的强大文献。正如几位历史学家所记载的那样，