Juvenile Delinquency: Its Evolution in Late 19th Century England

The notion that juvenile delinquency in particular and crimes committed by child and adolescents in general were separate from crimes committed by adults is considered a recent construct. In fact, it was not until the first half of the 19th century in England that such a notion first came about. A corollary to this was the idea that these types of crimes and criminals should be treated differently from hardened adult criminals.

This is not to say that juvenile crimes did not exist before this or that juvenile crime was an invention of the 19th century. As Shore (2000) points out ôjuvenile crime and the petty, or not so petty, delinquencies of youth have been a central concern in society from time immemorialö (21). However, most scholars and historians admit that there was what might be called a ôre-conceptualizationö of the concept at this time, a new way of looking at it that went on to serve as the foundation for the treatment of these crimes in late 19th century England and indeed in our own juvenile justice systems in the early 21st centuryùalthough it can now be argued that such a system, especially in the United States, has begun to revert to pre-reform days.

In general, there were three key components to the new system that made it quantitatively different from what had taken place previously:

Built-in tension leading to a seesaw battle between ideas of punishment and reformation;

. . .
ile Offenders Act of 1847, allowing summary jurisdiction for those under 14 accused of larceny (raised to age 16 in 1850). The extending of all crimes no matter what committed by youths under 16 in the Summary Jurisdiction Act of 1899. There was also a new awareness on the part of the courts as to the circumstances under which a crime was committed, something that was unheard of in the 18th and early 19th century. According to Lea (2004a): By the end of the century, courts were far more likely to take into account the personal circumstances of the offenderùpoverty for example or age. As we have noticed, offences committed by juveniles were the first to be treated differently. Social stability, the decline of the idea of a hardened recalcitrant criminal class, made for an understanding of the offender as victim of circumstances and needing treatment rather than punishment. Likewise the growth of criminology and psychology led to a move to take circumstances into account and made way for an increasing importance of treatment and welfare as an ingredient of punishment rather than the need simply to punish the guilty (http://www.bunker8.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/history/36807.htm). One of the more unusual arguments being featured in 19t
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3750
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)