Juvenile Justice: A Historical Background
In America, the outlook of childhood, adolescence, and juvenile delinquency are rather recent concepts. In actual fact, the history of juvenile justice in America is a recent parallel to the English Poor Laws that retrace to the Black Plague in the Middle Ages, with the establishment of almshouses and workhouses.
Before the 19th century in America, young people above the age of five were considered mature, and looked upon as miniature adults or property. Society had the concept of "infants" and "toddlers", but not any notion of childhood. When children got into trouble, and their family gave up hope, one of three punishments took place: (1) the apprenticeship system - where middle and upper class children were bound out to a skilled craftsman to be used as assistants; (2) the binding-out system - where poor children were bound out to any responsible adult to be used any way needed; and (3) church discipline - where church officials administered floggings, whippings, beatings, and brandings. These were considered the equivalent of punishments that a fully-grown adult would receive.
This all changed with the industrial revolution. The early 1800's saw factory life replacing family life, and children became displaced factory workers - leaving their homes at an early age, traveling around the country looking for factory jobs. As one can imagine, this created a whole host of social problems, such as vagrancy, drunkenness, and crime committed by children. Added to this was the problem of mass immigration to the United States. State governments acted in response by creating the so-called Houses of Refuge. The first house of refuge was established in New York City in 1825. Their main objective was to reform poor, errant children and turn them into hard-working, useful members of the society. The house of.......
