ABSTRACT
In Scottish institutions there was generally less rigid categorisation of inmates; both convicted and destitute children were to be found in the same school, in contrast to the trend of opinion in the English reformatory movement. Moreover, children were particularly vulnerable to the shortcomings of the poor relief system. Consequently, author find contemporaries viewing the Scottish poor law as one of the causes not only of crime in general, but of juvenile crime in particular. The extent to which the Scottish institutions supplemented the deficiencies of the poor law was often remarked upon by observers who were familiar with the poor relief systems of both Scotland and England. Thus, as was the case with Scottish legal procedure and poor relief, an examination of the tradition of parochial education sheds light on many of the distinctive features of the Scottish approach to the treatment of destitute and delinquent children in the mid-nineteenth century.
