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Criminal children: childhood and the law since 1865

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Gail Reekie  and
Paul Wilson
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Extract

The child of the law, like the man of the law, is a particular kind of legal young person who bears no necessary relationship to a “real” young person. Children are, nevertheless, very much present in the law. This chapter examines the ways in which the language of the law, expressed in statutes relating to child welfare and juvenile justice, has articulated particular notions of the criminal child and deviant childhood. The object, using the words of King and Piper, is to find out how the law has “thought about” children.

Type
Representations of the Child
Information
Queensland Review , Volume 3 , Issue 2: Volume 3 Special Issue 02 (Young in a Warm Climate) - July 1996 Editor: Lynetter Finch , July 1996 , pp. 76 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 

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References

Endnotes

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