Citation

Sutton JR. Am. J. Sociol. 1983; 88(5): 915-947.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1983, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/227764

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the development of state juvenile codes in the United States in the 19th century. The central phenomenon examined is the legal differentiation of adults and children through the creation of unique deviant statuses for children and the denial of procedural rights as a requirement for their incarceration. A variant of legal evolution theory, based on a model suggested by Turner, is used to explore the determinants of legal differentiation in this case. Documentary sources and quantitative data from state juvenile codes and census records are used to show, first, that the establishment of juvenile reformatories was a necessary precondition for changes in the legal status of children and, second, that the diffusion of reformatories is explainable, not by modernization in general but rather by a combination of semi-independent socioeconomic, cultural, and political factors.