ABSTRACT
Robert L. Maginnis of the conservative Family Research Council concluded, 'Children from single-parent families are more prone to commit crime'. The voluminous literature on delinquency produced in France before and during World War II expressed with growing urgency concerns about the impact of family breakdown on children and adolescents. Minister of Prisoners, Deportees and Refugees Frenay's 1945 statement connecting absent prisoner of war fathers and delinquent children reflected public and expert opinion about father absence and broken families. By linking family breakdown and juvenile crime, specialists were nudging the problem of minors who commit crime, a group that early in the century aroused public fear and loathing rather than sympathy, into a mainstream political discourse. The rapidly rising juvenile crime rate could have provoked anger against delinquent youth. Serious work in reforming legal procedures and institutional operations began during Vichy, whose 27 July 1942 law completely overhauled the juvenile court system and recommended serious institutional reforms.
