Pimm-Smith, Rachel (2018) Juvenile de-pauperisation: The journey from public childcare to English citizenship 1884-1900. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The first powers to allow the custody of a child to be transferred to the English state without parental consent were initiated during the late-nineteenth century. The New Poor Laws were used for this purpose. Intervention was justified on the basis that children whose parents needed public support required protection because their families were moral contaminants due to their dependency. The state sought custody of juvenile paupers so they could ‘de-pauperise’ them through different systems of public childcare so that they could be trained to become economically productive citizens who contributed to the interests of the state as adults. This thesis explores whether these objectives were achieved over the long term. In the process of conducting this investigation the narrative of protection as the basis for public law interference in the private sphere is challenged because notions of protectionism are contextualised within a wider framework of imposed citizenship.

The history of child protection shows us that the state initiated interventionist power for the purpose of moral reform but presented it as an act of rescue. This project concludes that some reformation objectives were fulfilled while others were not; but its most important contributions are twofold. Firstly, this thesis situates original public law interference between parents and children within the broader socio-legal landscape of material survival during a period of severe austerity. By doing this, a second contribution is also made. Repositioning interventionist power within a framework of citizenship reform forces certain popular assumptions about the nature of child poverty during this period to be unseated. This raises important questions about the legitimacy of Victorian efforts to erode parental rights.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	K Law [Moys] > KF Common Law, British Isles > KF England and Wales H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Child care -- Government policy -- Great Britain -- 19th century, Child welfare -- Great Britain -- 19th century, Poor -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century, Poor families -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century, Home -- Political aspects -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century, Authority -- Social aspects -- Great Britain -- History, Working class families -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century
Official Date:	December 2018
Dates:	Date Event December 2018 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	School of Law
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Probert, Rebecca ; Harding, Maebh
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	340 leaves : illustrations, charts
Language:	eng

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