Since the introduction of the Children’s Act in 1905, parents could lose their parental authority if they did not fulfil the obligation to look after their child properly. In 1922 a less severe protection measure was introduced: the supervision order. At the same time the Juvenile Judge was established. He ...
(Show more)Since the introduction of the Children’s Act in 1905, parents could lose their parental authority if they did not fulfil the obligation to look after their child properly. In 1922 a less severe protection measure was introduced: the supervision order. At the same time the Juvenile Judge was established. He would work with the supervision order.
Several decades and one world war later a lot of experience had been accumulated. A professionalization process was at full steam in the field of child protection. At the same time society experienced a rise in prosperity and the first signs of secularisation. In 1950 the number of supervision orders rose above those during the war period, slowly decreasing in the next ten years. The court district of Groningen was no exception to the national trend.
In the sixties church attendance had dropped, the pillarisation of Dutch society broke down, authority was contested and child protection came under question. Changes that had it’s roots in the previous decade.
What caused the Juvenile Judge in Groningen to award so many requests for a supervision order in the fifties? Was it the increase in population, new problems for children in a changing society, new ways of noticing problems or a lacking system of voluntary assistance for children?
By analysing the court dossiers on supervision orders I would like to show that the role of the Juvenile Judge was strong in questions of law and right but restricted in questions of pedagogical assistance. Supervision orders were strongly influenced by the current of the system of assistance. At the same time Juvenile Judges tried to be more critical of the pedagogical assistance during the supervision order of which they were in charge.
The self evident connection between law and pedagogical assistance began to deteriorate.
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