JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND THE SYSTEM

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’t escape the ways of vice and corruption (Ibid).
During the 18th and 19th century, the age at which a child should be held responsible for his or her actions was debated for centuries. “No child under the age of discretion should be punished for any crime” (Blackstone, 1899, p. 1230).
The period of childhood, was divided further into two categories: aetas pueritia proxima, which were ages 7 to 10 ½ and aetas pubertati proxima, which were ages 10 ½ to 14. Children in the first stage of life and the first half of the second stage were not punishable for any crime. Delinquent children fro 10 ½ to 14 years of age were punishable only if the prosecution could prove intent, and persons 14 to 25 could receive capital and other punishments as readily as adults (Simonsen, 1991 p. 13).
During 1828, the first facility for juvenile delinquents in the United States came into reality. It had taken over five years of careful planning and strategy for public support on the part of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, which went on to bec...