How did Scotland’s criminal justice system respond to marginalised street children who found themselves on the wrong side of the law, often for simple vagrancy or other minor offences? This book examines the historical criminalisation of Scotland’s Victorian children, as well as revealing the history and early success of the Scottish day industrial school movement - a philanthropic response to juvenile offending hailed as ‘magic’ in Charles Dickens’s Household Words.

With case studies ranging from police courts to the High Court of Justiciary, the book offers a lively account of the way children experienced Scotland’s early juvenile justice system.