Chp 3 - Historical Origins

Question 1

What is the importance of social reformers?

Answer 1

During the 19th century social reformers (upper-middle class business, political and legal male elites) began to question the wisdom of the dominant governance practice of adjudicating young people through a generalized system of punishments. Gradually, they created a separate juvenile justice system fashioned on different principles and philosophies

Question 2

What is the Charivari technique

Answer 2

Technique used by the community, if something happened that upset them they would get together and come scare you

Question 3

Has childhood as a distinct category of life always existed?

Answer 3

No

Question 4

When was juvenile delinquency/childhood invented?

Answer 4

17th Century

Question 5

Is childhood a cultural artifact or a biological imperative according to Aries?

Answer 5

Childhood is a cultural artifact, and not a biological imperative (it is socially constructed and this construction changes over time) nothing in childhood is natural, it is only because attributed values to it that we see it as distinct from adulthood

Question 6

What was Aries 1st argument in regards to childhood?

Answer 6

Childhood was discovered in western Europe in the 17th century (socially constructed, nothing natural)

Question 7

What was Aries 2nd argument in regards to infancy?

Answer 7

High infant mortality discouraged parents from growing attached (bonding) to offspring (emotional investment) as evidenced by:
Wet Nursing

Question 8

What are the 3 criticisms of Aries arguments

Answer 8

1. who could afford to have portraits painted, wet nurses?
   This was a select view of childhood, working class could not afford this
2. facts to suit his own ideological agenda - very conservative and catholic
3. Linda Pollock parents did invest in their children (reading diaries)

Question 9

What is Classical Legal Governance?

Answer 9

Generalized system of adjudication and punishment,
Little or no distinction made between young and adult offenders (Montreal), primarily concerned with establishing guilt or innocence

Question 10

Before what age do you not enter the justice system? What ages were not convicted unless proven guilty?

Answer 10

Under 7 not included, from 7-14 you weren’t convicted unless the Crown could prove otherwise

Question 11

What are the 2 goals of the Classical Legal Approach?

Answer 11

1. ) Revenge/Retribution

2. ) Deterrence

Question 12

What were the Changes in thinking in the Brown Commission (1849)

Answer 12

What young offenders were, how we deal with them - For the first time. Modes of control
Essentially: New conceptualization of young people and their crimes and a corresponding shift in how to respond to them

Question 13

Which Penitentiary did the Brown Commission investigate?

Answer 13

The Kingston Penitentiary

Question 14

What was found at Kingston?

Answer 14

excessive discipline, drunk staff, many staff ex-military, no training with offenders or young people, Uncleanliness - rats, vermin, lice, Insanity
• Most important, found:
youth alongside adults (treated as little adults), suffered same punishments and discipline.

Question 15

What new view did the Brown Commission put forward?

Answer 15

First emergence of the mentality that we must view/treat young people differently than adults - they should be treated differently they have different needs

Question 16

Major issues the Brown Commission had?

Answer 16

1. ) Young people are malleable and are shaped by their circumstances & 2.) they are different from adults
   - Putting them together is counterproductive, they need their own reformatory institutions, Not all offenders are the same

Question 17

Because of the Kingston Penitentiary conditions what changed in treatment of yourg deviants?

Answer 17

Interest in a particularistic knowledge concerning the special legal status of children began to grow. In theory, young deviants were no longer considered criminal but were thought of as misguided children who were the products of their social environments.
Proper intervention could reshape a child to lead a productive life in the community

Question 18

Was the reformatory movement successful in practice?

Answer 18

In practice the Reformatory movement was successful only in removing children from adult facilities, it accomplished very little in the way of reform

Question 19

What 2 pieces of legislation emerged as a result of the Brown Commission?

Answer 19

1. ) An Act for the more speedy trial and punishment of young persons
2. ) An Act to establish Prisons for young persons

Question 20

What is the act for more speedy trial and punishment of youth and why is it necessary?

Answer 20

Accelerated the trial process for youth, because the longer young people are associated with criminals and criminal adults the more influenced they are by them. Therefore they want to separate the older from the youth so they are not influenced by them.

Question 21

What is the act to establish prisons for young persons and why is it necessary?

Answer 21

This showed a belief in the special status of children and the view that punishment must have a greater purpose than retribution, deterrence or incapacitation: incarceration not for what people have done but to prevent future harm.

Question 22

What was the new way of thinking about deviant youth?

Answer 22

Separate category of offender, They require different interventions, institutions and mentality. This new way of thinking about the social problem of juvenile delinquency set the stage for the creation of alternate solutions and modern developments in treatment

Question 23

What was the first institution designed for young offenders?

Answer 23

Pentanguishene (Kingston Penitentiary held them but wasn’t designed for them)

Question 24

What were the problems of the Pentanguishene reformatory?

Answer 24

Was an old army barracks left over from the war of 1812 (poor building facility). Was not one of their priorities, far away/removed from society.
When they arrived it wasn’t finished, Kitchen wasn’t done, holes in the walls, cells not finished – the kids had to build it. No reformatory program in place, only labour. No classification provisions (all ages housed together)

Question 25

Was Pentanguishene successful?

Answer 25

It was doomed from the start - kids came back worse than when they went there. It was only a reformatory by name, it’s conditions were no different from a prison.

Question 26

Who reformed Pentanguishene and what did they do? Did it work?

Answer 26

In 1887 Langmuir came to make changes. He removed the warden and replaces him with a superintendent, creates a reformatory program – by this time there were already other institutions that superceeded the reformatory, it closed in 1906.

Question 27

Video: are you popular? How is gender policed in this video?

Answer 27

Jenny is popular for and “parking in cars with boys” – however she’s not really popular, she dates all the boys in the group, she’s not welcome. Carolyn is more subtle, she has no rumors about her and looks nice, she is interested in Wally but she expressed it by asking to help him rather than being too forward
– Gender is policed by videos like this that show girls how they are supposed to act.

Question 28

What changes conditioned a shift in thinking about young people?

Answer 28

• Discovery of childhood
• Discovery of juvenile delinquency
• Creation of the public school movement
• Reformatory and industrial school movement

Question 29

Who was JJ Kelso?

Answer 29

The Superintendent of Neglected Independent Children. One of the first people to recognize the problem of young people living in cities. Involved with the Humane Society.

Question 30

How did Kelso get involved with the System?

Answer 30

One day he encountered young boys begging on the street, he told them to go home, they told him if they went home without a certain amount of money their parents would beat them, he took them with him and told them he’d find them a place. He was looking for social services to deal with the problem - but there are none. If there’s no social services and you bring them to the courts what will happen? – Housed in a local jail for the night or let loose because there is nothing in-between. Didn’t want to send them to jail but wanted them to learn a lesson but if they got an absolute discharge (the only alternative) they would get nothing, no lesson, no punishment: Kelso comes up with birching as a response

Question 31

What did W.L Scott create?

Answer 31

Encounters a woman - Miss. Scheff, giving a lecture on probation - something between prison and absolute discharge. He goes back to Ottawa and starts to employ probation in 1906: hires probation officers etc… but the judge tells him he can’t – there is nothing in the law about suspended sentence
Therefore he creates the JDA: Juvenile Delinquency Act – to allow for probation.

Question 32

What does Probation do?

Answer 32

Probation suspends sentence - gives an opportunity by allowing you in the community under certain conditions

Question 33

What was the significance of the JDA?

Answer 33

First piece of legislation in Canada for young offenders, creates the first courts. Not to say that youth weren’t treated differently before: Brown Commission & Act for the more speedy trial and punishment of youth – both largely ignored
Any young offender was brought to a separate cell and tried in the basement away from other offenders (separated them out), Dealt with kids in the same manner as adults, although it was a different space, it was the same ideology

Question 34

Film on Probation – What is the significance?

Answer 34

Detention homes for children, has a house mother and father, sleeps in a nice bed, has a good breakfast, has a full physical exam. Meets with a probation officer who recounts his story - why does he behave as he does? The probation officer travels to Johnny’s neighbourhood, talks with his mother and learns about his background, meets with his teacher and his gang of friends. Johnny then goes before the judge (not a trial) a quiet hearing with Johnny, his mother and the probation officer reading reports of the officer, doctor and psychologist. The judge puts him on probation, the officer will supervise him but it is his job to reintegrate himself. The probation officer visits with Johnny and his mother, gets them on welfare, gets Johnny to go to church again, arranges him to meet with a pilot as he is interested in flying - he uses this interest to motivate his schoolwork – he begins studying aviation and joins a club about it. He gets off probation successfully “his case is typical of probation achievements”

Question 35

What are the 4 factors that tell us how Canada moved towards a separate juvenile justice system?

Answer 35

1. ) Socio-Economic Climate
2. ) Social Reformers and Movements
3. ) Social Welfare Penality
4. ) Anti-institutional Discourse

Question 36

What are the 3 components of Socio-Economic Climate?

Answer 36

Immigration, Urbanization, Industrialization

Question 37

What are the 3 components of Social Reformers and Movements?

Answer 37

Reformatory and Industrial Schools, Public schools & Child welfare, International influences

Question 38

What are the 3 components of Social Welfare Penalty

Answer 38

The Canadian State, Rise of Social Welfare, Changes in punishment

Question 39

What are the 3 components of Anti-Institutional Discourse

Answer 39

Dissatisfaction with institutionalization, Appeal of community strategies, Probation

Question 40

What was changing in the Socio-Economic Climate?

Answer 40

Industrial Revolution is revving up - many people coming for the new jobs (also from the rural countryside) – massive migration & immigration to the cities for these jobs. Transformed class and race relations, between 1860 and 1930 more urban poor

Question 41

What was the result of the new Socio-economic climate?

Answer 41

With all this movement to the city you get all the problems that comes with big cities. Problems like theft etc… were usually handled quite informally (sometimes formally with the church) but usually informally within communities. As people move into the cities those kinship networks that acted as a form of social control start to break down. Consequently we become anonymous and individualized. In a period of Intense nation building – “White, Protestant” Canada - elite men and women targeted “dangerous working class and immigrant parents” as detrimental

Question 42

What was the public school movement?

Answer 42

The move toward compulsory education extended the period of dependency which in effect contributed to a more favourable climate for recognizing the special status of young people. In 1855 Toronto provided free schooling although many did not attend. Placed much importance on family which were essential for instilling values of industry, honesty, thrift, modest behaviour, cleanliness, religious conviction, respect for law and a benevolent attitude toward fellow humans.

Question 43

What were the major Social Reform movements?

Answer 43

• Public School Movement and Child Welfare
• Reformatories and Refuges
• The Industrial School Movement

Question 44

How did male deviance differ from female deviance?

Answer 44

Girls were criminalized for inappropriate femininity (staying out late with boys, involvement in the sex trade) or otherwise errant female sexuality warranted institutionalization, while boys were punished for criminal behaviour and eventually were dealt with through probation

Question 45

How did the different approaches of boys and girls affect the remedies applied to them?

Answer 45

Boys needed training in trades and farming to become better working-class men while girls needed instruction in proper femininity and lessons in domesticity to become good working class women

Question 46

What was the first prison for women? What was it based on?

Answer 46

Mercer Reformatory. Based on the idea that men’s and women’s natures: their sensibilities, minds, souls and essentially their ‘proper spheres’ - were distinct (Ideology of Separate Spheres)

Question 47

What was the Industrial School Movement?

Answer 47

Moving towards reform style institutions designed to offer training rather than punishment not only to young people but also those deemed wayward or in danger of falling into criminality. Reaction to many things: limitations of Pentanguishine, reformatory movement in US and Europe, and growing number of young people in jails.

Question 48

Who was W.H. Howland?

Answer 48

Grew up when Toronto was starting to become a metropolitan city and was starting to see the problems of massive immigration and migration - lots of poverty, orphans, Gave all his money away, went bankrupt twice.
Biggest backer of Industrial schools in Toronto (promoted them). Helped form ISAT (Industrial Schools Association of Toronto) – really advocated for industrial schools, started the campaign in 1859 (2 years after Pentanguishine opened)
but died before the very first institution opened.

Question 49

What did W.H. Rowland establish?

Answer 49

the Victoria Industrial School in 1887 in Mimico Ontario. In theory was to have none of the prison taint, looked more like a house, much more cozy (did not want a militant feeling). Differentiated itself from reformatories in its lessons in self-control and how to avoid potentially deviant situations,
A home like refuge or safe haven

Question 50

Why did boys arrive at the VIS?

Answer 50

In 1887 the reasons were: Incorrigibility. They could be sent by the courts but mostly through the superintendent of neglected independent children – JJ Kelso
1. Unwillingness to obey the law - committed crimes (very low on the list of why people were sentenced)
2. Unwillingness to obey parents
3. Lacking habits of industry (lazy - as a young person you are supposed to be actively doing something)
4. Truancy (skipping school)
- Truancy Officers: patrol for children skipping school
5.) Parents could not afford them
> Also because of their wayward masculinity

Question 51

Why did girls arrive at Industrial Schools?

Answer 51

1.) Crimes related to their sexuality

Question 52

What is Modern Legal Governance?

Answer 52

New rationality of Government beginning to take shape:
- Laissez faire approach gave way to a social-welfare state
Interventionist policies and programs. Particularized system based on knowledge of the offender rather than their criminal conduct.

Question 53

What were the basics of Modern Legal Governance and Social Welfare?

Answer 53

Idea that there is a social problem and through intervention we can solve it and doing so is for the greater good - there is an end to which we are working but in order to get there we have to intervene in private lives. Also if we apply the lessons of science to society we can solve its problems.

Question 54

Whats the difference in fault of criminality between Classical and Modern Legal Governance

Answer 54

Hedonistic mentality is situated in the individual (Classical Legal Governance) but not in the society, the social welfare rationality of governing situates the individual in the society that is conditioning their behaviour (Positivist, Modern Legal Governance)
Moving from mentality of governance focused on the individual to a mentality focused on the broken social world (late 19th c.)

Question 55

How does Modernist Government differ from Classical

Answer 55

1. offender is a subject of knowledge (investigation)
2. dense and interlocking network of social control agents
3. particular governance (Hedonistic vs. social welfare – Classical to Modernist)

Question 56

What is Anti-Institutional Discourse and what led to it?

Answer 56

Growing dissatisfaction with institutional governance and a new enthusiasm for community-based strategies like probation in shaping new modern legal governance. Public calls for deinstitutionalization on the grounds that institutional confinement:
- Brought young people on the verge of criminal careers into contact with hardened recidivists
- Unsuccessful at reforming
Encouraged sexual relations

Question 57

Why did probation become the crown jewel?

Answer 57

Because it was flexible and reflexive: It enabled a specific, tailor-made program particularly suited to the unique needs of every individual

Question 58

Why was probation considered the ideal program?

Answer 58

• Situated in the community amongst family (1st time discipline moves outside of the institution)
• It was individualistic (tied to the individual)
• officers (with aid of school officials) could investigate the family, peers, etc.
  and arrive at an appropriate solution to the offending youth’s deviance

Question 59

What is the irony and shortcoming or probation?

Answer 59

Although the JDA was a representation of what Scott, Kelso etc… envisioned without incarceration, it implemented institutionalization for females. Probation was not considered for female sexual crimes.

Question 60

What happened to harsher institutions after Probation emerged?

Answer 60

Harsher institutions became dumping grounds for hardened offenders

Question 61

What led to Modern Legal Governance?

Answer 61

• ‘Discovery’ of childhood
• ‘Discovery’ of juvenile offender
• Rise of the public school movement
- extended the period of dependency
• Reformatory and I/S movement
- Demonstrated youth were different than adults
- Creation of cities

Question 62

What 3 main characteristics separate Modern Legal Governance from Classical?

Answer 62

1. ) Particularistic (government treats every case as unique - focuses on individual circumstances rather than solely on criminal conduct)
2. ) Knowledge Based (Offender is a subject of knowledge that is investigated - thorough look at a person’s circumstances and background)
3. ) A Dense Interlocking System of Social Controls (community and not just the state plays a key role in exercising control and surveillance over offenders

Question 63

Who is the Author of the JDA?

Answer 63

• W.L. Scott: Author and Proponent of JDA - 1908

Question 64

What does the broad definition of Delinquent allow for?

Answer 64

Broad definition means the judge has broad options for sentencing and a lot of discretionary power. One way this power was exercised is through Status Offences: conduct that if undertaken by an adult would not incite legal action (ex. Drinking, gambling, truancy, promiscuity), another is indeterminate sentencing

Question 65

What is the underlying philosophy of the JDA?

Answer 65

the state had a major role to play in intervening in the affairs of any family where the child was deemed delinquent or “in need of protection” (parents patriae, interventionist, best interest). JDA was based on awareness of the special status of children and accumulation of administrative knowledge about children’s social environments and their progress under supervision

Question 66

What is the “dematerialization of the offence?”

Answer 66

placed the juvenile delinquent and not the crime at the heart of the investigation > Crime is NOT the end all be all anymore

Question 67

What is the most important consequence?

Answer 67

• the focus of court investigation shifted from the offence to the offender
• no longer were “crimes” investigated and governed
now it was the “offender” and their wrong doing that received attention