The “Creation” of Childhood and Delinquency

1. The “Creation” of Childhood and Delinquency Early Conceptualizations of Childhood

2. “The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awake. The further back in history one goes, the lower the level of child care, and the more likely children are to be killed, abandoned, beaten, terrorized, and sexually abused.”Lloyd DeMause., 1974:1

3. What is a “social construction?” • A social construction suggests that what we experience as “reality” is not intrinsically what we experience. • Consider the musical scale. Have you ever wondered why the diatonic scale has 12 notes? Musical tones are continuous. We arbitrarily divide it into 12. Some cultures have 15--or more! • A “social construction,” then, takes an event, behavior, or phenomenon, and imputes meaning into it.

4. Childhood as a social construction • There is certainly a biological and chronological reality inherent in the concept of “childhood.” • However, the attributes that we assign to this chronological age are socially defined or constructed: • Limited responsibility • Need for protection from adult vices (e.g., smoking and drinking) • Acceptance of public nudity or near-nudity (depending on age) • Unacceptability of working for an employer for pay

5. Early Conceptualizations of Childhood • Childhood as we understand it dates only to somewhere between the 14th and 17th centuries • Prior to this time, “small people” were either accorded no social presence at all, or were regarded as miniature adults

6. Children as “Non-Human • Infanticide-especially illegitimate, deformed, poor, later born, and girls • Abandonment--often left on the streets, on door stoops and in orphanages. Another common form was wetnursing. • Swaddling--seen on the right, involved depriving the child of use of limbs by wrapping them in endless bandage. Child could be left unattended Practices which reflected this “social construction:”

7. Children as “miniature adults” Practices which reflected this “social construction:” • Adult punishment for misdeeds--punishments for children were severe, even the death penalty, for minor offenses • Slavery and Apprenticeship--children were commonly sold into slavery, prostitution and apprenticeship. Sometimes as security on debts, or as political hostages • Morality, sex and prostitution--children were exposed to adult sexuality from an early age, and even used as prostitutes Even the paintings of this time portrayed children as adults, as can be seen in this portrait.

8. In Summary…. • There really was no “good old days” for children. The history of childhood is a rather dim one • The treatment of children in the past would be regarded as criminal today--these treatments were normal by the standards of that day! • The “child” as we understand him/her today is a product of the last 200-500 years, and primarily a creation of the Industrial Revolution.