• Corpus ID: 154629256

Child Justice in South Africa

@inproceedings{Skelton2008ChildJI,
  title={Child Justice in South Africa},
  author={Ann Skelton and Boyane Tshehla},
  year={2008}
}

• A. Skelton, B. Tshehla
• Published 1 September 2008
• Law

It is important to understand the history of juvenile justice in order to contextualise current developments. Sociologist Ellen Key (1909), writing just over a hundred years ago, predicted that the 20th century would be the 'century of the child'. She was writing at the end of a century during which welfare-oriented individuals and organisations had founded houses of refuge and reformatories to which children could be referred instead of being sent to prison or deported. Also during the 19th century, a juvenile probation system was developed in Massachusetts, and by 1891 criminal courts in that state were required to appoint probation officers (employed by the courts) in juvenile cases.