Samenvatting

This article gives a historical sketch of a century of juvenile justice in the Netherlands. It focuses on the development of the concept of childhood from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Starting from the notion of degeneration and the idea of the neglected child, in the thirties a psychologization process emerged. Crucial was the notion of the childlike nature of the behavior of minor offenders, which was clearly inspired by new insights coming from pedagogy, developmental psychology and child psychiatry. The author argues that recently, after some decades showing a trend towards more toughness on crime, there are indications of a reemergence of the notion of the childlike nature of young delinquents, again inspired by knowledge and insights from the behavioral sciences but also from neurology and brain research.