Deviance, Race, and Childhood in Early Criminal Justice Reform

Prior to the juvenile justice reform policies of the early nineteenth century, children and youth who were convicted of committing crimes were often absorbed into almshouses, houses for the poor, or sometimes sent to adult prisons. Their circumstances changed following emergent social recognition of the category of childhood, a process that influenced reformers’ attention to notions of juvenile delinquency and one that aided in the creation of separate houses of refuge for children. This process was racialized, and indeed only white children were initially admitted to the first institutions for juvenile delinquency. Through an examination of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century prison records and humanitarian discourse, this paper examines this pivot in the treatment of children within the criminal justice reform movement with a focus on African Americans and notions of deviance. In doing so, it will illuminate many of the contradictions white reformers faced when attempting to advocate for childhood as a social category while encountering increasingly solidified constructions of race.