Kelly, Christine (2012) Criminalisation of children in Scotland 1840- 1910. PhD thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3601/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] CRIMINALISATION OF CHILDREN IN SCOTLAND 1840-1910 Christine Marie Kelly Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree for PhD School of Law College of Social Sciences University of Glasgow April 2012 ABSTRACT This thesis draws on a wide range of primary sources in order to explore the criminalisation of children in nineteenth century Scotland. The analysis is set in the context of far-reaching changes in the administration of criminal justice including the expansion of urban policing, alterations in criminal procedure and legislative developments. Against this background the thesis examines the impact of pragmatic, religiously inspired philanthropy on reform of juvenile justice in Scotland and argues that Scottish reformers in the 1840s and 1850s achieved a remarkable degree of success in setting up a unique pre-statutory national experiment to deal with juvenile offenders. This innovative diversionary system was based upon the concept of the day industrial school, first set up by Sheriff William Watson in Aberdeen in the early 1840s. A genuine welfare initiative, the day industrial school was preventive in approach, aimed at rescuing vagrant, destitute children and juvenile offenders from a life of crime. Instead of being sent to prison children were sent by the courts to the schools where they received education, food and training in a trade. This system provided a model which was emulated in the reform of juvenile justice throughout the UK and was also of international influence. However, one of the key contentions of this thesis is that from 1854 onwards the pre-statutory Scottish system underwent a process of transformation as it adapted to changes associated with the advent of a statutory UK framework governing certified industrial and reformatory schools. Pressures for uniformity, in the shape of centralising influences and standardising UK wide legislation, combined to subvert the humane ethos of the Scottish pre-statutory system. To the dismay of the original advocates of reform in Scotland the statutory system evolved in a way that they had not anticipated: by the closing decades of the nineteenth century diversionary systems for young offenders had developed into a mechanism for channelling large numbers of children into prolonged detention in residential industrial and reformatory schools, establishments which were penal in character. This entailed criminalisation of children on an immense scale, impacting in a particularly dramatic way on Scottish children. However, despite the enormous gulf between the benign aspirations and high idealism of the early Scottish reformers and the eventual dismal outcome in practice, there was evidence of an abiding current of humanitarianism still flowing through the Scottish system. This left its mark on the Scottish approach which continued, in some respects, to reflect the humanitarian legacy. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………… 10 CHAPTER 1: THE EMERGENCE OF CHILDREN AS A DISTINCT GROUP IN RELATION TO CRIMINALISATION………………………………………………………………........21 1.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...21 1.2 Criminalisation………………………………………………………………………..23 1.3 Reform movements in Scotland and England……....................................................28 1.4 Childhood in the nineteenth century………………………………………………...32 1.4.1 Changing ideas about childhood…………………………………………………...33 1.4.2 Aries and Elias……………………………………………………………………....34 1.4.2 (1) Elias………………………………………………………………………………37 1.4.3 Ideas of the child in literature……………………………………………………...44 1.4.3 (1) Locke and Rousseau…………………………………………………………….44 1.4.3 (2) The Romantics…………………………………………………………………...46 1.4.4 Childhood and religion……………………………………………………………...48 1.4.4 (1) Evangelicals, juvenile justice reform and social control....................................53 1.4.5 Ideas in practice……………………………………………………………………..55 1.5 The child in the criminal justice system……………………………………………...57 1.5.1 The young offender………………………………………………………………….57 1.5.2 Juvenile delinquency………………………………………………………………...61 1.6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...64 3 CHAPTER TWO: CRIMINALISATION OF CHILDREN IN SCOTLAND 1840-1860……………..........67 2.1Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….67 2.2The pre-statutory system: the Scottish system in the 1840s………………………....73 2.3 New initiatives………………………………………………………………………….80 2.3.1 The Glasgow system: the house of refuge………………………………………….82 2.3.2 The Aberdeen system: the industrial school……………………………………….86 2.3.3 The Edinburgh system: the ragged school…………………………………………97 2.3.4 An overview of the pre-statutory schools…………………………………………102 2.4 Legislative developments…………………………………………………………….104 2.4.1 Interaction with English campaigners.....................................................................105 2.4.2 Scottish legislation: Dunlop’s Act…………………………………………………107 2.4.3 U.K. legislation: the Youthful Offenders Act 1854……………………………….109 2.5 The early years of the statutory system in Scotland………………………………..110 2.5.1 Hay and others v Linton 2 Irv. 57…………………………………………………..112 2.5.2 The development of the statutory system…………………………………………115 2.6 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….121 CHAPTER THREE DEVELOPMENTS BETWEEN 1860 AND 1884…………………………………….124 3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………124 4 3.2 Centralisation and the role of the inspectorate……………………………………130 3.3 Position of the schools in the Victorian criminal justice system………………….131 3.4 The system in the 1860s……………………………………………………………..133 3.4.1 Financial problems: funding cuts on voluntary admissions…………………….134 3.4.2 Local variation in Aberdeen and Edinburgh in the early 1860s………………..136 3.5 Legislation in the 1860s………………………………………………………….......141 3.5.1 Legislation admitting young offenders to industrial schools…………………....141 3.5.2 UK legislation on industrial schools……………………………………………....143 3.5.3 Consolidating reformatory legislation…………………………………………….146 3.6 Reformatories in the 1860s…………………………………………………………..146 3.7 The 1870s: a period of reclamation……………………………………………….....151 3.8 The early 1880s: calls for reform…………………………………………………....154 3.9 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….159 CHAPTER FOUR: DEVELOPMENTS BETWEEN 1884 AND 1908……………………………………...160 4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..160 4.2 Reappraisal of the system………………………………………………………........164 4.2.1 Background to the 1896 Departmental Committee Report……………………..164 4.2.2 Undercurrent of humanitarianism in Scotland…………………………………..169 4.2.3 Recommendation to end prior imprisonment…………………………………….171 4.2.4 The system in operation in Scotland………………………………………………175 4.2.4 (1) Criticisms of procedure………………………………………………………...175 5 4.2.4 (2) Professional interests…………………………………………………………...176 4.2.4 (3) Truants………………………………………………………………………….178 4.2.4 (4) Young children in reformatories………………………………………………183 4.3 Quarrier’s initiative…………………………………………………………………..184 4.4 The Children Act 1908……………………………………………………………….186 4.4.1 Background to the Children Act 1908……………………………………………186 4.4.2 Child imprisonment………………………………………………………………...187 4.4.3 The juvenile court…………………………………………………………………..190 4.5 Evidence from the archives………………………………………………………….198 4.5.1 Industrial school admissions……………………………………………………….198 4.5.2 Reformatory admissions: Wellington cases………………………………………204 4.6 Cases in the High Court of Justiciary……………………………………………….208 4.7 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….212 CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION: THE ROAD TO KILBRANDON 5.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………..214 5.2 The inter-war years………………………………………………………………..215 5.3 Kilbrandon…………………………………………………………………………218 5.3.1 The road to Kilbrandon…………………………………………………………218 5.3.2 The Kilbrandon Report………………………………………………………….220 5.4 Key research conclusions…………………………………………………………..222 6 5.4.1 The impact of diversionary systems……………………………………………..223 5.4.2 The child in the nineteenth century……………………………………………...224 5.4.3 Conflict and compromise…………………………………………………………227 5.4.4 Challenges to existing thought……………………………………………………229 5.5 Criminalisation………………………………………………………………………232 5.6 Transjurisdictional issues………………………………………………………….. 238 5.7 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………239 Table of cases……………………………………………………………………………..241 Table of statutes…………………………………………………………………………..242 Table of reports…………………………………………………………………………..244 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………..247 Glossary…………………………………………………………………………………...251 References…………………………………………………………………………………253 7 Acknowledgement I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisors, Lindsay Farmer and Fiona Leverick, for their guidance and support in the writing of this thesis. I am immensely grateful to them for their kindness and encouragement. It has been a wonderful experience working with them both. I would also like to thank all of those