Juvenile Institutionalization, Effects of

Deborah Sowers Kaiser

The first institution created solely for “wayward,” poor, and orphaned children was the House of Refuge in New York City in the late 1800s; most states soon followed New York's lead with their own institutions. The creation of these types of institutions marked the beginning of a shift in the conceptualization of the definition of childhood; before this, children older than age 5 were viewed as small adults, capable of the same moral capacity as adults. Gradually, the idea that children are inherently different from adults and that the state had the responsibility to protect them took hold. The culmination of this evolution occurred in 1899, when the Juvenile Court Act created the first juvenile court. In response to court cases that pointed to the need for constitutional protection of juveniles against their treatment as adults and confinement as status offenders, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Protection Act of 1974 ...

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