Juvenile delinquency began to be recognized as a problem in England during the early 19th century. The London Criminal Registers and Home Counties Assize Records show an abrupt increase in the percentage of young offenders (aged 10-19) brought before the courts from 1791 to 1793 and again from 1820 to 1822. It is suggested that the increased concern about juvenile offenders was a manifestation of a more comprehensive problem: the insubordination of a large portion of the working class and the alarm with which the rest of the population responded. In addition, the decline in the use of capital punishment may have generated an increase in the prosecution of minors because now they were no longer in danger of losing their lives for simple stealing. Finally, the growing concern by victims and prosecutors may have created the phenomenon of juvenile delinquency as much as the offenses themselves. References