“Dealing With Delinquency” in 1880-1940

Juvenile delinquency was an invention of the adults that defined and instituted responses to it. Between 1880 and 1940, the Progressive Era gave rise to the child saving movement. In this context, reformers sought to save children from delinquency, while those that saw less redeemable qualities in juvenile delinquents sought to contain them. These views collectively led to the creation of institutional responses to juvenile delinquency. The institutional responses signify the creation of physical space to contain and redirect the lives of children. Many juvenile delinquents were children that could not be properly cared for, so the line between them and dependent children was often blurry. “Dependents” were those unable (or unwilling) to support themselves through “useful” productive labor; and “delinquents” and others in the “criminal class” engaged in criminal behavior or were seen as a criminal danger to society (Bush, 2023, p. 203).