Artful Dodgers: Youth and Crime in Early Nineteenth-Century London (ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY STUDIES IN HISTORY NEW SERIES)

With a particular focus on juvenile crime in London, this is an examination of the social context for the advances in juvenile-criminal legislation of the early-19th century. That period witnessed an increasing concern over the incidence of juvenile crime, and the foundations were laid for a juvenile-justice system which would serve, with amendments, for the next century and more. Separate trial, separate penal provision and an emphasis on reform rather than punishment were all enshrined in the new legislation. The author explores the processes and context of these legislative strategies, in which consideration of juvenile crime in London played a major part. She examines the process of offending, from the initial foray into crime, through apprehension and passage through the judicial system, to punishment and experience of penal and reform measures: prison, houses of correction, transportation and colonial emigration.