Juvenile Delinquency in Late 19th Century England

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Juvenile Delinquency in Late 19th Century England

At the same time, and perhaps not coincidentally, other developments at the state and societal level helped consolidate these notions:

[T]hese developments occurred at the same time as changes to the Poor Law system, change in the workplace, relating particularly to women and children, and changes in the policing of society evidenced by the passing of the Factory Acts, the Metropolitan Police Act, and the New Poor Law in the first half of the century� (Shore 21).

Other factors included an easing of the number of crimes that were subject to capital punishment, including such crimes as pick-pocketing, punishable by death until 1808. This led ironically to more convictions of juveniles as the courts no longer feared that these juveniles could be put to death.

This paper traces the background and evolution of the notion of juvenile delinquency in late-Victorian England. The paper argues that this notion consisted of a coming together of public and private interests, as well as new approaches in sociology and psychology, and a further distinction between what a child is versus adulthood (especially in the difference in vie

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In law, by the middle to late 19th century, if someone under the age of seven committed what would otherwise be considered a crime, that person could not be held liable for that act. Between the ages of seven and 14, criminal intent had to be proved. Between 14-16, the Juvenile Offenders Act took over, and allowed for summary jurisdiction. According to Conley: �The sentences for persons under the age of sixteen usually reflect some special consideration, but there were cases in which children as young as eight were held in adult prisons for extended periods of time� (123).

The road to the 1907-1908 acts had started well before, of course. The establishment of the reformatories and industrial schools starting in the second half of the 19th century got things rolling. Alongside this, prison conditions were clarified and specified for juvenile offenders. According to the Gladstone Committee of 1895, which many believe still stands as one of the important cornerstones of the present system: �We think that ordinary prison discipline and regulations should not be applied to juveniles, but that governors and the visiting committees should be made responsible for their treatment subject to general instructions which should be issued by the Secretary of State. The principle of these instructions should be that each child should be treated according to its own peculiarities of temperament, that the fact of imprisonment should be the main deterrent, and that treatment should be altogether of a reformatory character� (Cited in Fox 329-330). As well, in 1899, the law whereby juvenile offenders had to serve time in prison before being allowed to be sent to reformatory was repealed, thus severing the connection between the two.

One of the more unusual arguments being featured in 19th century British treatment of juvenile delinquents was whether or not corporal punishment was more appropriate and beneficial than jail sentences�at least for the very young and as yet not harden

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		According Lea \| England Introduction \| Alternative View \| Probation Offenders \| Mahood Corporal \| School Acts \| Poor Law \| Children's Charter \| Shore Transportation \| According Conley \| 19th century \| juvenile delinquency \| corporal punishment \| university press \| juvenile offenders \| juvenile delinquents \| late 19th century \| late 19th \| summary jurisdiction \| oxford university press \| nineteenth century \| juvenile crime \| 19th century england \| middle 19th century \| reformatories industrial schools \|