The thesis focused on how the advent of children's rights, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has impacted on the subject of juvenile justice and embarked on a practical examination of law reform in this regard in an African context. The focus was placed on a number of African countries that have embarked on or completed child law reform in the aftermath of ratification of the CRC. The case studies in this thesis were Ghana (1998-2003), Kenya (1993-2001), Namibia (1994 to date), Lesotho (2003 to date), South Africa (1997 to date) and Uganda (1992-1996).

In Jordan, residential care institutions (RCIs) for children in conflict with the law are identified as various specialised state institutions which constitute a state formal response to youth crime, and specialise in taking care of children. This thesis examines the objectives of RCIs’ programmes for children in conflict with the law in Jordan, as they attempt to reduce offending by convicted children, and whether these objectives meet children’s needs, according to the view and experiences of children themselves (12-17 years). This study is based on qualitative methods, using data from individual and focus group interviews with institutional staff, and participant observation and individual interviews with children. Exploring the divergent claims made within childhood and youth crime theoretical perspectives, this thesis develops a nuanced understanding of institutions’ crime-reduction programmes by drawing upon key theoretical concepts from these frameworks: children as ‘socially becoming’ and ‘social beings’. RCIs provide four rehabilitative programmes to help reduce children’s problematic and offending behaviour; namely, a family guidance programme (FGP), a poverty reduction programme (PRP), an educational programme (EP) and a child behaviour modification programme (CBMP). To a large extent, these programmes tended to provide polices of crime prevention which focus on re-socialising children according to the normative and cultural system of behaviour in which children were generally perceived as incompetent social actors, and where their best interest was not always acknowledged. To a large extent, children’s own perspectives and experiences of institutional rehabilitative programmes revealed the institutional failure to treat their familial, economical, educational and behavioural problems. Overall, children thought such failure happened either because the institutional aims were not actually implemented, or because the methods of delivering the institutional programmes per se were ineffective. This finding reflects a contradictory picture between the RCIs’ objectives and their actual practices, reflecting the institutional departure from a set of theoretical ideas regarding the prevention of youth crime. Focus group discussion with key informant staff referred to a variety of obstacles that contribute to their inability to address children’s wider needs within the existing institutional aims. Parental refusal to participate in child abuse and supervisory neglect interventional sessions, short-term intervention for chronically abused children and institutional reliance on talking methods in promoting parental supervision over children’s behaviour were all issues hindering effective institutional intervention within the familial environment. The institutional failure to meet children’s educational and career training needs occurred because these programmes are scheduled at the same time. The seriousness of some children’s crimes and the inability of some families to accompany their children to school were other issues preventing children from attending school. The lack of staff motivation, along with staff’s interrelated roles, prevented child monitoring staff from fully carrying out the intended intervention of modifying children’s negative behaviours. Ultimately, the findings from this study indicate the inconsistency between RCIs’ principles of rehabilitating children in conflict with the law and their actual practices, including the lack of policies in place to meet the institutional objectives. This in turn meant that RCIs do not actually operate to rehabilitate children in order to reduce reoffending, but are largely punitive and operate to criminalise children and separate them from society.

Over the last 30 years, the juvenile justice system and juvenile correctional ideology shifted to become more punitive in nature. However, studies examining this shift are lacking in the literature. The present study will attempt to assess what correctional ideology, rehabilitative or punitive, is dominant within juvenile corrections by conducting a national survey to juvenile facility directors. This study will be based on prior literature, most of which has focused upon line staff in an adult correctional setting. From this prior literature, more specifically from the work of Cullen et al. (1989), scales will be created to determine the correctional orientation of the key administrators in juvenile facilities. This will allow us to assess whether the correctional ideology driving the juvenile system has in fact become punitive. The findings from this study have the opportunity to alter the current status quo in juvenile corrections.

"Thèse présentée à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Docteur en droit (LL.D.)" / La Loi sur la protection de la jeunesse prévoit que la détermination des mesures de protection peut faire l'objet d'une décision du Tribunal de la jeunesse ou, alternativement, d'une entente sur mesures volontaires (emv) proposée par un intervenant de la Direction de la protection de la jeunesse et acceptée par le jeune et ses parents. La recherche porte sur le second mode d'application de la Loi. Elle établit la problématique de l'emv en théorie du droit et propose une observation sociologique de la pratique de l'emv dans les cas de troubles de comportements sérieux (art. 38h) L.P.J.). Une problématique scientifique de l'emv commande l'interdisciplinarité. Il s'agit de retracer les origines conceptuelles de cette alternative à la judiciarisation dans des disciplines externes, puis d'insérer cette connaissance en théorie du droit. Le concept d'emv relève de deux mouvements différents, celui de l'intervention contractuelle en travail social et celui de la gouvernance contractuelle en droit. Ce dernier comprend la transaction de droit public, le contrat administratif et le droit souple (soft law). Ces deux mouvements participent d'une même vague de fond théorique, qui déferle actuellement sur l'ensemble des sciences humaines, et qui inclut le contrat de l'analyse transactionnelle en psychologie ainsi que la pédagogie de contrat. Le concept de contrat pédagogique désigne cette mouvance scientifique. Il est inhérent à la modernité et il constitue une mutation paradigmatique par rapport à la division droit privé/droit public, d'où la nécessité, pour définir l'emv, d'un concept nouveau et indépendant par rapport à cette division: le concept d'autorité normative. La recherche sociologique relève de la méthode de l'entretien compréhensif formalisée par Jean-Claude Kaufmann. Elle a pour but d'observer l'effectivité de l'emv. Les entretiens auprès de mères et de jeunes garçons révèlent un vécu subjectif en partie conforme à la finalité instrumentale de l'emv (réactions d'ouverture et d'adhésion au droit), et en partie non conforme (réaction de méprise chez les mères et de peur chez les jeunes). De même, les entretiens réalisés auprès des intervenants révèlent une pensée motrice en partie conforme à la rationalité du droit souple (décision clinique et acceptation de l'autocontrôle requis) et en partie non conforme (attitude rétrospective semblable à celle d'un juge et refus de la finalité imposée par la Loi). Le tout illustre l'important potentiel d'efficacité de l'emv, en termes de protection concrète, mais montre aussi la grande difficulté de la tâche de l'intervenant et l'inadaptation de sa préparation cognitive. Certains d'entre eux refusent le nouveau mode d'action publique parce qu'ils n'en comprennent pas la rationalité. Dans l'approche des problèmes de l'adolescence, il en résulte souvent une prégnance des formes pénales et la survivance, dans l'imaginaire parental, d'une mesure de répression du mineur réfractaire à l'autorité parentale, comme c'était le cas dans l'Acte concernant les écoles d'industrie de 1869. / The Youth Protection Act states that protective measures may be imposed by a decision of the Youth Tribunal or, alternatively, determined through a voluntary measures agreement (vma) proposed by a youth protection case worker and accepted by the minor and his parents. The research bears on the second mode of law application. It draws up the framework of vma in legal theory and proposes a sociological observation of the practice of vma in cases of severe behavior problems (art. 38h) YP.A.). A scientific framework of vma requires interdisciplinarity. The conceptual origins of this alternative to adjudication must be found in external disciplines and then must be introduced in legal theory. The concept of vma cornes from two different scientific movements, the contractual approach in social work and the contractual governance in law. The latter inc1udes public law transaction, administrative contract and soft law. Both movements belong to a large theoretical wave, now invading the whole of human sciences, inc1uding among others transactional analysis in psychology and contract-based pedagogy. The concept of pedagogical contract identifies this large scientific movement. Although inherently modern, the movement represents a paradigm shift from the private law/public law distinction and requires the construction of the new concept of "normative authority", independent from that distinction, in order to define vma. The sociological research follows the principles of comprehensive interview such as formalized by Jean-Claude Kaufmann. Its goal is to study the effectivity of vma. Interviews with mothers and boys reveal a subjective life experience partially in line with the instrumental function of vma (reaction of open-mindedness and adherence to law), and partially not (reaction of misunderstanding amoung mothers and of fear amoung boys). In the same way, interviews with youth protection case workers reveal motives of action partially in line with the rationality of soft law (c1inical decision and acceptance of self-control), and partially not Gudge-like retrospective attitude and refusaI of the official purpose). Globally, the results show the important potential of effectiveness of vma in terms of concrete protection, but they also reveal the great difficulties of the decision-making job undertaken by the youth protection case workers and the inadequacy of their cognitive background. Sorne of them refuse the new administrative mode because they do not understand its rationality. Then, quite often, the treatment of teenager problems reveals the prevalence of a punitive rationality and the survival, in parental imagery, of the idea of a procedure whose purpose would be to repress a child's resistance to authority, as was the case with the Industrial Schools Act of 1869.

The thesis thoroughly examines the issue of response to juvenile delinquency and potential solutions of their criminal liability in the European context. The thesis describes the historical development of approach to juvenile delinquency, as well as basic models of youth justice. The important part of the thesis focuses on comparative analyses of selected foreign legislation, namely the legal order of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In depth are analyzed penalty systems of those countries and their mutual comparison. Further part is dedicated to evaluation of selected sanctions in terms of their effectiveness based on knowledge about recidivism of juvenile offenders. In relation to effectiveness of sanctions the thesis deals with question how to influence different types of juvenile offenders from the perspective of developmental criminology, especially chronic offenders. Author pays attention to the phenomenon of chronic juvenile offenders, formulates risk factors used to identify and predict the life-course delinquency. Following subpart discusses two of the most important factors influencing the committing of serious crimes by juveniles, e.g. delinquent peer groups and immigrant origin, which are relative neglected in the Czech professional literature. The importance of immigrant origin for a...

Cette thèse analyse la pluralité des principes de justice autour des pratiques éducatives auprès des jeunes dans les services et les hébergements du ministère de la Justice et les enjeux qui en résultent pour les éducateurs-fonctionnaires. Il a été également envisagé, à travers l’analyse des compromis et des arrangements en acte, la nature des « solutions » permettant de « tenir ». Ainsi, la thèse est composée de trois parties. La première partie se consacre à l’étude de « l’éducation judiciaire » du point de vue historique et juridique et expose la démarche de recherche engagée en sociologie pragmatique. La perspective boltanskienne examine les justifications et les critiques de ces justifications lorsque les acteurs (et les objets) tentent de sortir des situations de conflit. Méthodologiquement, l’enquête s’appuie sur l’analyse de textes juridiques (internationaux, nationaux et locaux) qui traitent de la « problématique éducative » des jeunes délinquants, d’une enquête ethnographique auprès d’acteurs dans un service régional, deux établissements et trois services éducatifs et d’entretiens avec les acteurs « périphériques ». La seconde partie de la thèse traduit ce cadre théorique à l’éducation judiciaire. Il s’agit de dégager un essai de modélisation permettant de concevoir « le monde qui là » et ses différentes influences sur la pratique éducative. Ces nombreuses disputes et critiques rendent l’épreuve de l’éducation et du judiciaire instable et, montrent que l’éducabilité de la jeunesse déviante est un problème de société et pas simplement de la Justice. Enfin, la troisième partie de la thèse expose les montages plus ou moins cohérents des individus lorsqu’ils organisent un minimum de règles et de prévisibilité sociale autour des pratiques éducatives auprès des jeunes dans deux dispositifs éducativo-judiciaires (hébergements, milieu ouvert). Ainsi, il apparaît que les acteurs, pris dans un processus de normalisation institutionnelle qui, dans le quotidien, doit être « bricolé » (Javeau, 2001) afin de s’ajuster au plus près des situations juvéniles et de leurs spécificités. / This PhD thesis analyzes the plurality of principles of justice regarding educational practices for Youth in Juvenile Justice and hosting services, with special focus on this specific study field, and the challenges resulting there from educators and justice officials. Our analysis of the prevailing compromise and arrangement strategies enabled us to examine the sustainability of envisaged solutions for officials of justice. The thesis is composed of three parts. The first part is devoted to the study of « judicial education » from a historical as well as a legal point of view. It also focuses on and discusses the process of committed research in pragmatic sociology. The Boltanskian framework and perspective examine the justifications and provide a critical analysis of these justifications when actors (and objects) try to deal with a conflict situation. Methodologically, the survey relies on the analysis of legal texts (international laws and conventions, domestic/local laws), which tackle « Educational issues » related to juvenile delinquency. We also conducted an ethnographic survey among individuals of a Regional Judicial Police Service, two territorial establishments and three educational services. Moreover, we conducted interviews with « peripheral actors ». The second part of this thesis translates the above-mentioned theoretical framework into judicial education practices. The purpose is to identify a model design or a preliminary model which would allow us to conceive this « specific world » and its different influences on educational practice. These numerous disputes and criticisms increase the complexity as well as the instability of judicial education and show that the educability of deviant youth is a social matter and not merely a judicial establishments problem. Finally, the third part of this thesis discusses the more or less coherent legal arrangements individuals opt for when they propose to implement a minimum of rules/guidelines or social predictability related to educational practices for youth in two judicial education services (hosting, open system). Thus, it appears that actors get engaged in a process of institutional normalization which needs to be constantly « tinkered with » (Javeau, 2001) in order to adjust themselves as much as possible to juvenile situations and to their specificities.

Cette thèse se situe dans un cadre théorique à la croisée de la sociologie du contrôle social de la délinquance juvénile et de celle du genre. Elle a pour objectif d’identifier les réponses des institutions publiques apportées à la délinquance des filles mineures. La méthode de recherche a consisté en une enquête de terrain dans l’agglomération de Grenoble, notamment à l’hôtel de police, au palais de justice, à l’unité éducative de milieu ouvert (UEMO) Nord et à l’établissement de placement éducatif et d’insertion (EPEI) de Corenc de la Protection judiciaire de la jeunesse (PJJ) de l’Isère. Nous avons effectué des observations et conduit des entretiens auprès de divers professionnels du système pénal des mineurs (policiers, éducateurs et juge des enfants). Nos résultats montrent la surprotection des filles ; en effet, elles sont présélectionnées comme « mineures en danger » par la justice civile et, dans le circuit pénal, elles sont maintenues en situation de placement. Les résultats font également état de l’existence de représentations de genre de la délinquance des filles circulant dans le milieu pénal des mineurs. Leurs délits, leurs personnalités et également les modalités de leur prise en charge sont lus au prisme du genre. En définitive, la trame de la sélection pénale des filles mineures apparait genrée et renforce les figures judiciaires de la fille fragile à protéger et du garçon dangereux à « recadrer ». / The theoretical framework of this dissertation is at the crossroads of the sociology of juvenile delinquency, social control and gender. Its aim is to identify public institutions’ responses to the delinquency of minor girls. The research method consisted in a field study in the urban area of Grenoble, including police station, courthouse, educative and judiciary services (UEMO Nord and EPEI Corenc of PJJ). Observations and interviews have been made with various professionals within the juvenile criminal justice system (police officers, youth workers and juvenile court judges). Results show an overprotection process of girls. Indeed, they are selected upstream as "minors at risk" by the civil justice (child protection proceedings) and, in the criminal system, they are maintained in institutional homes. Gender-based representations stem out of our investigations, spreading throughout the juvenile criminal justice system. Hence the general background of the criminal selection of juvenile girls appears as "gendered" and reinforces the figures of fragile girls to be protected and dangerous boys requiring correctional action.

A presente dissertação ocupa-se do estudo da teoria criminológica da rotulação social e do sistema de justiça juvenil visando, ao final, a aproximar essas duas esferas de conhecimento e verificar a assertividade das lições emanadas da mencionada teorização no tocante à aplicação e a execução das medidas socioeducativas. O caminho criminológico percorrido inicia-se com o surgimento da Criminologia chegando até a teoria crítica, sucessora da rotulação social. No que se refere à Justiça Juvenil são apresentados todos os paradigmas que direcionaram seu entendimento, atendo-se ao estudo das medidas socioeducativas e suas finalidades, destacando-se a sanção mais gravosa, a internação. A junção dos conhecimentos ocorre com o estudo dos efeitos da internação e sua ligação com a possibilitação de uma carreira criminosa. / The present dissertation occupies itself of the study of the labelling approach criminological theory and of the juvenile justice system intending to, in the end, approach those two spheres of knowledge and verify the certainty of the lessons emanated of the aforementioned theory regarding the application and the execution of the socialeducational measures. The criminological path passed through begins with the emergence of Criminology reaching the critical theory, successor of the labelling approach. Regarding the Juvenile Justice, are presented all of the paradigms that directed its understanding, focusing in the study of social-educational measures and its purposes, especially the most severe penalty, the admission. The intersection of the knowledge takes place with the study of the effects of the admission and its connection with the making-possible of a criminal career.

O pior dos dois mundos traduz a hipótese de que atualmente adolescentes seriam tratados com a informalidade histórica associada à justiça juvenil, isto é, com poucas garantias processuais, ao mesmo tempo em que receberiam sanções mais duras, como é a atual tendência na justiça criminal adulta. Este trabalho investiga o que o Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) decide em 53 casos paradigmáticos acerca dessas duas questões: proteção processual e controle penal de adolescentes. Verifica-se também como o tribunal decide em relação à gravidade dos casos, à possibilidade de privação de liberdade e à solução que o Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente (ECA) confere a cada caso. Igualmente, pesquisa-se como o tribunal justifica suas decisões. A partir de elementos da sociologia de Pierre Bourdieu, constrói-se a decisão judicial punitiva como ato de Estado, que detém o monopólio da violência física e simbólica legítima. Essa construção sublinha a importância de se observar que a decisão judicial não acarreta apenas a imposição física de um castigo, mas também contribui para a instituição das formas legítimas de se pensar sobre o fenômeno. Igualmente, utiliza-se a noção de vocabulários de motivos de Wright Mills, que permite pensar as justificativas dos magistrados não como explicações de por que agiram de determinada forma, nem como mera justificação para encobrir suas reais intenções, mas como construções linguísticas cujo uso se estabiliza em certas ações socialmente situadas, tornando-se, portanto, os vocabulários socialmente aceitos nessas situações. Assim, padrão decisório e padrão de justificação são estudados em conjunto, dada sua contribuição para a legitimação de práticas e de discursos sobre a punição no campo jurídico e no restante do espaço social. Para apreender o padrão decisório do tribunal, utiliza-se a qualitative comparative analysis, que permite a verificação da associação entre os atributos das decisões e seu resultado. Infere-se que o tribunal institui como legítimos dois modelos distintos de justiça juvenil. Nos casos graves, amplia o controle penal e a possibilidade de aplicação de internação e restringe a proteção processual (mesmo em contrariedade ao ECA). Nos leves, restringe o controle penal e a possibilidade de internação e amplia a proteção processual (mesmo em contrariedade ao ECA). Há ainda os casos que são indiferentes à gravidade, pois se aplicam tanto a situações graves como leves. Nestes o STJ impõe o controle penal previsto no ECA (não costuma contrariá-lo para ampliar ou restringir o controle) e restringe a proteção processual (mesmo em contrariedade ao ECA). A ampliação do controle penal é sustentada pela afirmação do caráter punitivo da sanção e pela importância de se tomarem decisões de acordo com a gravidade da situação e com o caso concreto. Já a informalidade do procedimento é sustentada a partir de uma aproximação à justiça penal adulta, e não pela afirmação da finalidade reabilitadora da intervenção, como ocorreu historicamente na justiça de jovens. A restrição do controle penal é sustentada pela afirmação de que o ato sob julgamento não é grave. Já a ampliação de proteção processual é justificada pela ideia de que o procedimento da justiça juvenil deve respeitar a Constituição. Outros vocabulários não foram associados de modo unívoco a um resultado, mas revelam que o STJ realiza uma justaposição de modelos ideais de justiça, cuja relação é aditiva: é legítimo punir e educar; afastar a lei adulta e aproximá-la, focalizar a gravidade do ato e as características pessoais do adolescente, proteger o jovem e a sociedade. Se por um lado esses vocabulários não são construídos como contraditórios, tampouco há um esforço em mostrar sua ligação. / According to the worst of both worlds hypothesis, youth offenders are being treated with the informality (and consequent lack of procedural protection) that has historically guided juvenile justice, while simultaneously being punished in a harsher fashion (especially with incarceration), as is the tendency in adult justice. This dissertation investigates how the Superior Court of Justice (SCJ) rules in 53 landmark cases regarding penal control and procedural protection in juvenile justice, and how the court motivates its rulings. Three other elements of the courts attitudes toward cases are considered: seriousness of offenses, use of incarceration and the literal solution the Statute of the Child and the Adolescent provides to each case. Employing elements of Pierre Bourdieus theory, punitive judicial decisions are construed as acts of state, which carry the monopoly of physical and symbolic violence. According to this perspective, criminal courts rulings not only impose suffering, but also communicate the legitimate ways of conceiving crime and its appropriate reactions to it. Also, this dissertation relies on Wright Mills concept of vocabularies of motive to construe judicial motivation theoretically. This concept avoids framing motives as real explanations for why courts decide and as mere rationalizations that covers courts real intentions. Instead, courts motivations are interpreted as linguistic constructions whose use become stable in certain social situations, hence becoming the legitimate motives accepted in such situations. An adaptation of qualitative comparative analysis is used to account for the SCJ decision-making pattern. In sum, the SCJ institutes two legitimate juvenile justice models. In serious cases, the SCJ expands penal control and the use of incarceration, and restricts procedural protection (even against statutory provisions). In non-serious cases, the SCJ restricts penal control and the use of incarceration, and expands procedural protection (even against statutory provisions). Some cases apply to all youths, regardless of the crime committed. In these cases, the SCJ shows an intermediary stance regarding penal control (it simply follows statutory positions), and restricts procedural protection (even against statutory provisions). As to its reasoning, the SCJ expands penal control on the following grounds: i. state response has a punitive character; ii. seriousness of the offense is an important criterion to make decisions in youth justice, iii. as is the need to make individualized decisions. Procedural protection restriction, on the other hand, is justified by an embracement of criminal justice principles, which contrasts with the historical tendency of the juvenile justice system that had rejected these same principles. Penal control restriction is justified by the idea that some acts are not serious. Procedural protection expansion is justified by the idea that juvenile justice procedures should follow Constitutional principles. Other vocabularies employed by the SCJ have not been clearly associated with specific outcomes. However, they reveal that the court promotes a juxtaposition of different ideal models of justice. According to the SCJ, it is legitimate both to punish and to rehabilitate, to accept adult criminal law rules and to reject them, to focus on cases seriousness and on offenders characteristics, to protect offenders and society. Though these pairs are not presented as contradictory, their connection is not made explicit.

Ce travail de thèse porte sur le destin des enfants et des adolescents envoyés en maisons de redressement (reformatorios) de 1939 à 1975. Il confronte la norme produite par l'État franquiste en matière de déviance juvénile aux réalités de la prise en charge des mineurs dans trois institutions particulières : l'Asilo Durán de Barcelone, la Colonia San Vicente Ferrer de Valence et, dans une moindre mesure, la Casa tutelar San Francisco de Paula de Séville. L'histoire heurtée et le caractère archaïque des reformatorios révèlent les carences de l'État espagnol (manque structurel de moyens, place considérable de l'Eglise catholique). Dans le domaine de la prise en charge de la déviance juvénile, le franquisme n'invente rien ou presque : il se contente d'abroger les réformes limitées mises en place par la Seconde République pour en revenir au dispositif de la Dictature de Primo de Rivera. Les pensionnaires de maison de redressement sont internés pour deux motifs principaux : le vol et l'indiscipline. Ils ne viennent pas majoritairement de quartiers populaires dans lesquels une population ouvrière est installée depuis longtemps : c'est plutôt le déracinement, lié à la guerre et aux mutations profondes de la société espagnole, qui provoque la fragilité et favorise la déviance. Il apparaît que les enfants de « rouges » ne représentent qu'une minorité des pensionnaires de l'Asilo Durán et de la Colonia San Vicente Ferrer. Néanmoins, les reformatorios constituent un des maillons de la chaîne répressive, de contrôle social et de bienfaisance mise en place par la dictature franquiste avec l'appui de l'Eglise catholique. / This dissertation analyzes the fate of children and teenagers sent to Spanish reformatory schools between 1939 and 1975. It compares the official norm of youth deviance produced by Franco's state with the actual treatment of minors in three institutions: the Asilo Durán in Barcelona, the Colonia San Vicente Ferrer in Valencia and, to a lesser extent, the Casa tutelar San Francisco de Paula in Sevilla. The turbulent history of reformatorios and their antiquated methods reflect the failings of the Spanish State (structural lack of means, strong influence of the Catholic Church). The study of laws shows that Francoism innovates very little in the field of youth deviance management. It merely abrogates the limited reforms of the Republican era and reactivates the policy implemented under the Primo de Rivera Dictatorship. The inmates of reformatory schools are incarcerated for two main motives: theft and indiscipline. They are not from traditional working class neighborhoods: social frailty and related deviant behaviors are rather caused by the loss of roots due to the war and the deep mutations of Spanish society. Children of “reds” only accounted for a minority of inmates of the Asilo Durán and of the Colonia San Vicente Ferrer. Reformatorios are nevertheless a component of the policy of repression, social control and charity set up by Franco's dictatorship with the support of the Catholic Church.