Juvenile delinquency is the habit of carelessness and the propensity of committing criminal offenses by young persons. The participation of these minors in criminal or illegal activities attracts the attention of the law, which defines the punishment for the juveniles commensurate to their age, maturity levels, crime, and other factors of consideration. The history of juvenile offenders' dates back to the early 19th Century during the first wave of the industrial revolution.
Juvenile delinquency was not a new problem around the turn of the 20th Century. In the early to late 19th Century, juvenile delinquency was already on the rise in various states. According to Mintz (2004), the 1840s saw an upsurge of refugees in the State of New York. There were no laws that mandated that children must attend school in New York during this time, not until 1874. Therefore, the neglected children, mostly due to poverty, increased. Mintz (2004) reports that the New York State was plagued by the juvenile vagrancy problem to the extent that vandalism, arson, and runaway crimes were commonly practiced by younger and older children. The refugee demography who suffered great poverty was the major contributor to these activities. Older children were arrested and placed in adult jails where the younger were often released out of sympathy. From this evidence, it is clear that juvenile delinquency was a problem that started in the early 1840s.
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The sorts of issues that led to a rise in reform efforts, specifically targeting children, were the concerns that these vagrant children would grow up to be a social nuisance and lead to the formation of untamable gangs. According to the report by Matsell, "he worried that they would grow up to join a "dangerous class" of criminals that would terrorize the city" ( Semi-Annual Report of the Chief of Police, 1849 ). These concerns were echoed by various city leaders, including Charles Loring Brace, who suggested that the children be moved to places where farming jobs were available, majorly in the west. The "Orphan Trains" as they were labeled, became an alternative way of dealing with the potentially orphaned vagrants.
The earlier trends in societal conduct lead to rises in delinquency, and the reform responses in many ways. First, Mintz asserts that the children were neglected and "outstripped the capacity of private benevolent societies" (Mintz, 2004: 160). Children who required care and support were thus left to be the victim of orphanhood, poverty, or family separations, which were the major causes of child destituteness. In response, schools, like the Massachusetts State Industrial Schools for Girls in Lancaster, the labeled "Reform Schools" were constructed in rural areas to aid in the removal of "wayward children" from the society (Mintz, 2004: 161). However, the approach used as a reform agenda was biased as it was retributive rather than reformative. For instance, Mintz states that the children were modeled through moral instructions, prayers, and hard physical labor. These publicly-financed institutions were like an approved center and a disciplinary prison.
Juvenile delinquency was inevitable because the government's approach to handling the growing population, poverty, and the refugee's issue was inadequate and not policy informed. The reform practices employed were also reactive, rather than proactive. The delinquency could have been prevented if and only if the government had installed child protection policies, enough schools to cater to the growing population and the refugee children, and also encouraged poverty alleviation remedies (Mintz, 2004). By the early 1900s, the reform efforts had included the revision of laws to protect children, the establishment of playgrounds for children, and education (Mintz, 2004). However, these efforts were not at all effective since the onset of the First World War redirected the attention of the government and the citizens to the concerns of the war, thus forgetting about the children.
There were different trends in delinquent behaviors and reform responses over time. The reason for this was the concern of the beginning of the reforms considering the juvenile offenders as a social nuisance who needed to be eradicated, and the response was employing them with adults. However, as the Century progressed, recommendations, such as the Conant's recommendations, placed the interest of the children at heart, in which children were grouped in learning environments (Mintz, 2004). However, these institutions were overcome with paternalism, regimentation, and inflexibility, which attracted the resentment from the children.
In summary, juvenile delinquency was a major issue when America was undergoing economic shifts during the early 19th Century. Manual unskilled labor was in high demand in farms, mills, and other types of factories. The absence of legal provisions to protect children from engaging in labor to supplement family income allowed children to participate actively in labor activities. The increasing demand for labor in the growing manufacturing industries also invited many refugees from the eastern and western side of the U.S. the overcrowding in poor states such as New York led to the growth of social evils, including criminal activities which were also committed by children. Juvenile delinquency thus started with the growth of industrialization in the 19th Century and peaked in the 1950s before it was considered as a social concern that mandated policy action.
References
Mintz, S. (2004). Huck's Raft: A History of American childhood. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Semi-Annual Report of the Chief of Police from May 1 to October 31, 1849 (New York, 1850), 58–61; 62–66.
