ABSTRACT
As most readers may know, the roots of the Canadian juvenile justice system were planted by the country’s close connection to England during the 16th and 17th centuries as many countries moved from agrarian feudalism to the early stages of capitalism. e period was marked by dramatic social, economic, and political changes among which were poverty, unemployment, and a growing concern with delinquency, young vagrants, and beggars (see Platt 1977). Such images were, for example, popularized in such works as Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. However, the legal concept of juvenile delinquency did not emerge in Canada until 1899 when Torontonian John Joseph Kelso (1864-1945) helped to pioneer the šrst juvenile court in North America in Chicago. (He also established the šrst Human Society in Canada in 1887 and the šrst Children’s Aid Society in 1889 in Toronto.) e court was established to gain control of the burgeoning problem of young persons.
