Abstract
This chapter looks at the Geneva (Switzerland) juvenile court in its first decade (1914–1925). The 1913 Act that established this court arose from ambiguous, apparently contradictory, ambitions: removing minors from the ambit of the criminal law, re-educating them, and repressing delinquency. The practice of the court shows—among other things—that the concern for re-education and other pragmatic factors were present in daily decisions. The introduction of ‘persistent misconduct’ as a basis for intervention that aimed to prevent future delinquency led to the imposition of important measures that can be viewed both from a welfare and from a repressive standpoint. The proactive role of some parents suggests that families were not mere subjects of repression but could take an active part in procedures.
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Notes
- 1.
Jean Trépanier, “Les démarches législatives menant à la création des tribunaux pour mineurs en Belgique, en France, aux Pays-Bas et au Canada au début du XXe siècle”, Le Temps de l’histoire: Pratiques éducatives et systèmes judiciaires, September 2003, no. 5, pp. 109–132.
- 2.
See Le Temps de l’histoire: Pratiques éducatives et systèmes judiciaires, September 2003. More generally on the institutions dealing with juvenile delinquency, see Marie-Sylvie Dupont-Bouchat and Eric Pierre (Eds.), Enfance et justice au XIXe siècle, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 2001; Jeroen J.H. Dekker, The Will to Change the Child: Re-education Homes for Children at Risk in Nineteenth Century Western Europe, Frankfurt a.M./Bern, Lang, 2001.
- 3.
Joëlle Droux, “Une contagion programmée: La circulation internationale du modèle des tribunaux pour mineurs dans l’espace transatlantique (1900–1940)”, in Martine Kaluszynski (et al.) (Eds.), Les sciences du gouvernement: circulation(s), traduction(s), réception(s), Paris, Economica, 2013, pp. 102–117.
- 4.
Sandrine Kott (Ed.), Une autre approche de la globalisation: Socio-histoire des organisations internationales (1900–1940), Special Issue, Critique internationale, 2011, no. 52; Pierre-Yves Saunier, “Les régimes circulatoires du domaine social 1800–1940: projets et ingénierie de la convergence et de la différence”, Genèses, 2008, no. 71, pp. 4–25.
- 5.
Contrary to the British case, according to Victor Bailey, Delinquency and citizenship: reclaiming the young offender, 1914–1948, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1987.
- 6.
Mémorial du Grand Conseil (hereafter MGC), 1908.
- 7.
On childhood protection movements, see Roger Cooter (Ed.), In the name of the child: health and welfare, 1880–1940, London-New York, Routledge, 1992; Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra (Eds.), Cultures of child health in Britain and the Netherlands in the twentieth century, Amsterdam-New York, Rodopi, 2003 (Clio Medica, 71); Martine Ruchat, L’oiseau et le cachot: naissance de l’éducation correctionnelle en Suisse romande (1800–1913), Geneva, Ed. Zoe, 1993.
- 8.
Alison Bashford and Philippa Levine (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics, New York, Oxford University Press, 2010; Stefan Kühl, For the betterment of the race. The rise and fall of the international movement for eugenics and racial hygiene, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
- 9.
Rita Hofstetter, Les Lumières de la démocratie: histoire de l’école primaire publique à Genève au XIXe siècle, Bern, Lang, 1998, p. 336 sqq.
- 10.
MGC, 1912 (Annexes), p. 9.
- 11.
On the US juvenile court model at its beginning, see Thomas J. Bernard and Megan C. Kurlychek, The Cycle of Juvenile Justice, 2nd edition, New York, Oxford University Press, 2010; David S. Tanenhaus, Juvenile Justice in the Making, New York, Oxford University Press, 2004.
- 12.
See Joëlle Droux (draft version), “Un nouvel âge pour la justice des mineurs en Suisse et à Genève: la difficile transition entre dispositions répressives et juridictions éducatives (1890–1950)”, in Jean Trépanier (et al.) (Eds.), Juger les jeunes: une problématique internationale, 1900–1960 (to be published).
- 13.
On international congresses as platforms of exchanges between reformers networks‚ see Chris Leonards, “Border Crossings: Care and the ‘Criminal Child’ in 19th Century European Penal Congresses”, in Pamela Cox and Heather Shore, Becoming Delinquent: British and European Youth, 1650–1950, Ashgate, Dartmouth, 2002, pp. 105–121.
- 14.
Vuagnat (MGC, 1908, p. 1173).
- 15.
Vuagnat (MGC, 1910, p. 1337).
- 16.
MGP Nicolet, moderate socialist (MGC, 1912, p. 120).
- 17.
Rita Hofstetter and Bernard Schneuwly, “Ascension, embrasement et disparition d’une science. Le point de vue d’un observateur privilégié: Claparède et la pédologie au début du 20e siècle”, in Janet Friedrich, Rita Hofstetter and Bernard Schneuwly, Une science du développement humain est-elle possible? Controverses du début du 20e siècle‚ Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2013, pp. 45–64.
- 18.
Maunoir (MGC, 1912, p. 170).
- 19.
De Meuron (MGC, 1910, p. 141).
- 20.
Intervention by MP Dufresne, member of a private child-welfare charity (MGC, 1909, p. 2032).
- 21.
Vuagnat (MGC, 1910, p. 1467).
- 22.
On the civil law reforms in the Swiss context, see Joëlle Droux, Enfances en difficultés: De l’enfance abandonnée à l'action éducative (Genève, 1892–2012), Genève, FOJ, 2012.
- 23.
Bron (MGC, 1910, p. 147).
- 24.
Rapports du Conseil d’Etat sur sa gestion, 1890, 1910.
- 25.
De Meuron (MGC, 1910, p. 1459). On this crisis of confidence related to institutions of confinement, see Martin J. Wiener, Reconstructing the criminal: culture, law and policy in England, 1830–1914, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 285–294.
- 26.
Maunoir (MGC, 1913, p. 950).
- 27.
Rutty (MGC, 1912, p. 88).
- 28.
See Judith Sealander, The failed century of the child: governing America’s young in the twentieth century, Cambridge‚ Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 22 sqq.; Ruth M. Alexander, The “girl problem”: female sexual delinquency in New York, 1900–1930, New York, Cornell University, 1995, pp. 33–59.
- 29.
Alfred Gautier, “Chambre pénale de l’enfance”, Bulletin de la société genevoise d’utilité publique, 1910, pp. 210–233 (citation p. 221).
- 30.
Journal de Genève, 7 avril 1914.
- 31.
Maunoir, 14 June 1913 (MGC, 1913, p. 1071).
- 32.
Rapports du Conseil d’État sur sa gestion, Geneva, 1915.
- 33.
Rapports du Conseil d’État sur sa gestion, Geneva, 1926.
- 34.
Archives d’État de Genève, Département de Justice et Police (hereafter AEG, DJP), 1986 va 23/22.1.
- 35.
Dupont (MGC, 1931, p. 831).
- 36.
Brad Beaven, Leisure, citizenship and working class men in Britain 1850–1945, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2005; Jon Savage, Teenage: the prehistory of Youth Culture, 1875–1945, London, Penguin‚ 2007.
- 37.
Letter dated December 1914 to the police director (AEG, DJP, 1986 va 23/22.1).
- 38.
Alfred Gautier, op. cit., p. 221.
- 39.
Letter dated 26 January 1915 to the police director (AEG, DJP, 1986 va 23/22.1).
- 40.
Christian Alain Muller, “Forme scolaire et règlement de la ‘jeunesse’: précarité sociale, scolarisation et délinquance juvénile à Genève à la fin du XIXe siècle (1872–1914)”, in Franz Schultheis and Michel Vuille (Eds.), Entre flexibilité et précarité. Regards croisés sur la jeunesse, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2007, pp. 29–90.
- 41.
On the international networks dealing with youth management issues‚ see Damiano Matasci and Joëlle Droux, “Les jeunes en jeu. Circulations internationales de dispositifs et de politiques d’encadrement de la jeunesse (1929–1939)”, Traverse, no. 2, 2013, pp. 75–91. For national or regional cases‚ see Susan B. Whitney, Mobilizing youth: communists and Catholics in interwar France, Durham, Duke University Press, 2009; Julien Fuchs, “Les organisations de jeunesse en Alsace concordataire, 1918–1939. Pour une histoire des sociabilités”, Staps, 2003/1, no. 60, pp. 27–42.
- 42.
On the influence of victims’ demand on the volume of repression‚ see Peter King, “The rise of juvenile delinquency in England 1780–1840: changing patterns of perception and prosecution”, Past and present, no. 160, 1998, pp. 116–166.
- 43.
Fathers of foreign origin could get enrolled into their own country, while Swiss soldiers from the militia army could get stationed on the frontiers.
- 44.
MGC, 1910, p. 1465.
- 45.
On similar cases of the gendering of juvenile justice‚ see Astri Andresen, “Gender, After-Care and Reform in interwar Norway”, in Pamela Cox and Heather Shore, op. cit., pp. 123–140.
- 46.
Guinand, 4 October 1913 (MGC, 1913, p. 1404).
- 47.
Hugh D. Hindman (Ed.), The World of Child Labor. An Historical and Regional Survey, New-York-London, M.E. Sharpe, 2009; Marjatta Rahikainen, Centuries of Child Labour: European Experiences from the 17th to the 20th Century‚ London, Ashgate, 2004.
- 48.
On Justice of the Peace and “judges of proximity” (juges de proximité), see for the French case Jacques-Guy Petit (Ed.), Une justice de proximité: la justice de paix (1790–1958), Paris, PUF, 2003.
- 49.
Letter dated 2 October 1918 (AEG, DJP, 1986 va 23/22.1).
- 50.
Letter from Fernex to the Département de l’Instruction Publique (Department of Public Education, hereafter DIP), 15 March 1918 (AEG, DIP, 1985 va 5.3.90).
- 51.
Letter dated 16 April 1917 (AEG, DJP, 1986 va 23/22.1).
- 52.
Letter dated 20 August 1921 (AEG, DJP, 1986 va 23/22.1).
- 53.
Letter to Fernex, 12 September 1923 (AEG, DJP, 1985 va 003).
- 54.
Letter from Fernex to the DIP, 11 February 1926 (AEG, DIP, 1985 va 5.3.177).
- 55.
Same observation in Anne M. Knupfer, Reform and resistance: gender, delinquency and America’s first juvenile court, New York-London, Routledge, 2001, among others p. 88 sqq., as well as Sealander, op. cit., p. 28 sq.
- 56.
On labour as a founding mode of socialising for male identity‚ see Abigail Wills, “Delinquency, masculinity and citizenship in England, 1950–1970”, Past and present, no. 187, 2005, pp. 157–185.
- 57.
Véronique Strimelle, “La gestion de la déviance des filles à Montréal au XIXe siècle: les institutions du Bon Pasteur d’Angers (1869–1912)”, Le Temps de l’histoire: Pratiques éducatives et systèmes judiciaires, no. 5, September 2003, pp. 61–83.
- 58.
Our sample contained 12 cases of delinquents over 18 years of age, but this can explained by the fact that the cases were essentially called before this Court for requests of modification of their initial sentence, which had indeed been proclaimed before they had reached the age of 19. Beyond that age, youths were submitted to the same laws as adults, as the 1913 Act only applied to youths aged 10–18.
- 59.
Maunoir (MGC, 1908, p. 1179).
- 60.
Alfred Gautier, op. cit., p. 212.
- 61.
Les “bagnes d'enfants” en question: Campagnes médiatiques et institutions éducatives, Special Issue‚ Revue d’Histoire de l’enfance irrégulière, 2011, no. 13; Pascale Quincy-Lefebvre, Combats pour l’enfance. Itinéraire d’un faiseur d’opinion, Alexis Danan (1890–1979), Paris, Beauchesne, 2014.
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Droux, J., Kaba, M. (2018). Between Great Expectations and Hard Times: The First Decade of the Geneva Children’s Penal Court, 1914–1925. In: Trépanier, J., Rousseaux, X. (eds) Youth and Justice in Western States, 1815-1950. World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66245-9_6
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