The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency

Platt, Anthony M.

ISBN 10: 0226670724 / ISBN 13: 9780226670720

Published by Univ of Chicago Pr, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., 1977

About this Item

Second edition, enlarged. Minor edgewear and creasing of spine, interior fine. Analyzes the motives and concerns of the nineteenth-century reformers who helped to establish correctional institutions for problem children of the lower-class.

Seller Inventory # 094390

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 1977
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226670724
• ISBN 13: 9780226670720
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • .Social Sciences - Sociology

About this title

Synopsis

Anthony Platt's study, a chronicle of the child-saving movement and the juvenile court, explodes myth after myth about the benign character of both. The movement is described not as an effort to liberate and dignify youth but as a punitive, romantic, and intrusive effort to control the lives of lower-class urban adolescents and to maintain their dependent status. In so doing Platt analyzes early views of criminal behavior, the origins of the reformatory system, the social values of middle-class reformers, and the handling of youthful offenders before and after the creation of separate juvenile jurisdictions.

In this second, enlarged edition of The Child Savers, the author has added a new introduction and postscript in which he critically reflects upon his original analysis, suggests new ways of thinking about the child-saving movement, and summarizes recent developments in the juvenile justice system.

About the Author

Anthony M. Platt is a professor in the School of Social Work at California State University at Sacramento. He is the author of The Politics of Riot Commissions, and coauthor of Policing America and The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove: An Analysis of the U.S. Police.