Teen Trouble and Community Identity in Post-Second World War Northern British Columbia

Abstract

Akin to most areas in North America and Western Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War, Northern British Columbia experienced a moral panic over a perceived rise in teen trouble and juvenile delinquency. Framed in part by language centred on the nefarious influences of American crime comics, rock and roll music, ducktail haircuts, and zoot suits, the crisis can be explained by emerging generational identities, Cold War angst, and media portrayals of a society allegedly on the verge of collapse. For parents and community leaders in Prince George, British Columbia, however, the long-standing unease over the community’s reputation as a disorderly lumber town provided a crucial backdrop for these broader factors. As the community increasingly aspired to the trappings of postwar, middle-class respectability, the concern over teen trouble provided an arena to wrestle over community identity and the ways local residents wished to be seen by the outside world.