ABSTRACT
It is a striking fact that the only major piece of child welfare legislation during the inter-war period, years in which millions of young people suffered the economic and social consequences of the Depression, was an Act based on the recommendations of a committee whose concern was with juvenile offenders. In order to understand the Act, this chapter poses four questions. How did it come to be passed, and why was it thought necessary? What did it involve for the conception of juvenile delinquency? What were its main provisions? What effect did it have on those caught in its jurisdiction? In more general terms, the intention is to show the social and political strategies inherent in the motivation of reformers and politicians and in the content of the Act.
