The Victorian Asbo kids

[Still Waters]

These are the mugshots of Victorian child offenders - some of whom were as young as ten when they were arrested for petty crime.

Most of the criminals were sent to jail for stealing seemingly petty items that would barely warrant a police caution today.

http://www.dailymail...h-just-40p.html

[seeder]

I'd have been jailed in those times too then

[seaturtlehorsesnake]

sad, honestly.

something else that's interesting to check out (similar to this topic) is http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/. records of criminal trials in london. just pick a random date, and look at just how many of the crimes were punished by death, or "transportation" (sent to a penal colony). check out how minor most of the crimes that merited those punishments are. criminal justice in those days was far more interested in the protection of the property of the elite, than the protection of life.

the pictures shown were taken after there had been some pretty significant reforms, i believe, which is also worth thinking about.

[Taun]

My great-great-grandfather (on my mother's side) was about 12 years old, and he was caught (in Ireland) stealing a loaf of bread (it was during the 1842 famine)... He was sentenanced to be hung, but his family managed to scrape enough money up

to have it commuted to "Transportation"... They intended for him to go to Australia, but he was put on a ship to Charleston, South Carolina instead...

That's how that side of my family ended up over here...

[coolguy]

People where poor back then they had to steal to stay a live