CRIMINAL CHILDREN: Researching Juvenile Offenders 1820-1920

How were criminal children dealt with in the 19th and early 20th centuries? Over this 100 year period, ideas about the way children should behave - and how they should be corrected when they misbehaved - changed dramatically, and Emma Watkins and Barry Godfrey, in this accessible and expert guide, provide a fascinating introduction to this neglected subject. They describe a time in which 'juvenile delinquency' was 'invented', when the problem of youth crime and youth gangs developed, the hooligan, and when society began to think about how to stop criminal children from developing into criminal adults. Chapters cover transportation, Pankhurst, female factories, petitions. Through a selection of short biographies of 31 child criminals ending with Brendan Behan 1923-1964 they give readers a direct view of the experience of children who spent time in prisons, reformatory schools, industrial schools and borstals, and those who were transported to Australia. They also include a section showing how researchers can carry out their own research on child offenders, the court and police records they will need and how to use them for research. 162 page paperback.