SSCI 3037U Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Formal System, Juvenile Delinquency, The Young Offenders
Document Summary
Thesis: while youth justice has perhaps become fairer over the past century, it has also become increasingly punitive, pre- legal era, there is no formalized youth justice system. No single criminal law for judges to look at or no specific sentence (no uniform system: there was more room for fairness, problems with kids was dealt with by the family or neighborhood/ community. Most children barely got to see a court room or have an interaction with a police officer: for more serious crimes = children ended up in orphanages or work houses. No standard time to how long they would be there for (up to the judges: corporal punishment. Ignorance is no excuse for the law : was applied for everyone, even young people, some judges made exceptions and were lenient. Being a young person in 1856: there is more than one code of laws you could be punished under.
