Discussion: Juvenile Delinquency with Special Reference to Remand Homes

Few will deny that since the Children's Charter of 1908 the attitude of the Law and of public opinion towards the juvenile delinquent has become more liberal, humane and farsighted. Since that bloodless revolution in legal procedure the courts have by degrees transferred their interest from the nature of the offence to the nature of the offender and his circumstances. There has been since then an increasing recognition of the fact that in some cases punishment, so far from failing to deter the child from further antisocial behaviour, may sometimes even destroy his faith in society and foment his inward rebellion against its laws. The Act of 1908 gave expression for the first time in statutory terms to the view that the juvenile offender might be more sinned against than sinning and that the cause and the cure of his condition might emerge from an investigation of his background, which was and still is often one of poverty, of ignorance, of lack of outlet for normal energy or of disease and neglect.