Discuss the history and development of juvenile justice in early America, including a discussion of the child savers and their vision of juvenile justice.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The modern practice of legally separating adult criminals and juvenile offenders can be traced back to the development of Elizabethan poor laws and the English chancery court. Poor laws and chancery courts were brought from England to colonial America. Poor laws were established in Virginia in 1646 and in Connecticut and Massachusetts in 1678, but youths who committed serious criminal offenses continued to be tried in the same courts as adults. To accommodate dependent youths, local jurisdictions developed almshouses, poorhouses, and workhouses. Unfortunately, they were crowded and unhealthy places that accepted the poor, insane, the diseased and vagrant, and destitute children. Middle-class leaders, who referred to themselves as child savers, began to develop organizations and groups to alleviate the burdens of the poor and immigrants by sponsoring shelter care for youths, educational and social activities, and the development of settlement houses. The child savers were responsible for creating a number of programs for indigent youths, although they also focused on extending government control over a whole range of activities that had previously been left to private or family control, including idleness, drinking, and vagrancy. The child savers created programs like the New York House of Refuge, which aimed to protect indigent youths at risk of crime by taking them off the streets and reforming them in a family-like environment. The children there mostly participated in organized labor and were treated strictly, which drew criticism. The child savers also influenced state and local governments to create independent correctional institutions to house minors. Here, children worked at institutional jobs and received some basic education. Discipline was harsh and often involved whipping and isolation.