NCJ Number
148988
Date Published
1994
Length
25 pages
Annotation
Historians have documented a major transition in attitudes to, and policies toward, youthful offenders in England during the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. During the 19th Century, youthful offenders were no longer tried as adults and instead, juvenile delinquency was established as a major social problem and source of concern for the middle class.
Abstract
This paper analyzes records of the Old Bailey between 1790 and 1820, specifically a sample of 6,600 property offenders from the London Criminal Registers, to test theories about why, when, and in what forms juvenile delinquency captured public attention. The authors conclude that neither urbanization nor industrialization was directly responsible for the growth in juvenile property crime prosecutions in and around London during this time period. While social, economic, and demographic changes may have contributed to this trend, it appears that the changing attitudes and actions of victims, magistrates, police, and prison reformers provide the main key in understanding the rise of juvenile prosecutions. The declining use of capital punishment and the idea of the rehabilitation of offenders, combined with financial incentives offered to prosecutors and police agencies and the use of capital sanction in cases involving private stealing, eroded victims' initial reluctance to prosecute juveniles. 3 figures and 54 notes