Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
CHILDREN, LAW RELATING TO
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: CHA-CHR
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:CHILDREN, See also:LAW See also:RELATING TO . See also:English law has always in theory given to children the same remedies as to adults for See also:ill-usage, whether by their parents or by others, and has never recognized the patria potestas as known to the earlier See also:Roman law; and while See also:powers of discipline and chastisement have been regarded as necessarily incident to paternal authority, the See also:father is civilly liable to his children for wrongs done to them. The only points in which See also:infancy created a defect in See also:civil status were that infants were subject .to the restraints on See also:complete freedom of See also:action involved in their being in the legal custody of the father, and that it was and is lawful for parents, guardians, employers and teachers to inflict See also:corporal See also:punishment proportioned in amount and severity to the nature of the See also:fault committed and the See also:age and See also:mental capacity of the See also:child punished. But' the See also:court of See also:chancery, in delegated exercise of the authority of the See also:sovereign as parens patriae, always asserted the right to take from parents, and if necessary itself to assume the wardship of children where parental rights were abused or serious See also:cruelty was inflicted, the See also:power being vested in the High Court of See also:Justice. Abuse of the power of correction was regarded as giving a cause of action or See also:prosecution for See also:assault; and if attended by fatal results rendered the See also:parent liable to See also:indictment for See also:murder or See also:manslaughter. The conception of what constitutes cruelty to children undoubtedly changed considerably with the relaxation of the accepted See also:standard of severity in domestic or scholastic discipline and with the growth of new ideas as to the duties of parents to children, which in their latest developments tend enormously to enlarge the parental duties without any corresponding increase of filial obligations. Starting from the earlier conception, which limited ill-treatment legally punishable to actual threats or blows, the See also:common law came to recognize criminal liability in cases where persons, See also:bound under See also:duty or See also:contract to See also:supply necessaries to a child, unable by See also:reason of its See also:tender years to provide for itself, wilfully neglected to supply them, and thereby caused the See also:death of the child or injury to its See also:health, although no actual assault had been committed. Questions have from See also:time to time arisen as to what could be regarded as necessary within this See also:rule; and quite apart from legislation, popular See also:opinion has influenced courts of justice in requiring more from parents and employers than used to be required. But See also:parliament has also intervened to punish See also:abandonment or exposure of infants of under two years, whereby their lives are endangered, or their health has been or is likelyto be permanently injured (Offences against the See also:Person See also:Act of 1861, s. 27), and the neglect or ill-treatment of apprentices or servants (same act, s. 26, and See also:Conspiracy and See also:Protection of See also:Property Act 1875, s. 6). By the Poor Law See also:Amendment Act 1868, parents were rendered summarily punishable who wilfully neglected to provide adequate See also:food, clothing, medical aid or lodging for their children under fourteen years of age in their custody, whereby the health of the child was or was likely to be seriously injured. This enactment (now superseded by later legislation) made no See also:express exception in favour of parents who had not sufficient means to do their duty without resort to the poor law, and was construed as imposing criminal liability on parents whose See also:peculiar religious tenets caused them advisedly to refrain from calling in a See also:doctor to a sick child. The See also:chief progress in the direction of adequate protection for children See also:prior to 1889 See also:lay less in See also:positive legal enactment on the subject than in the institution of an effective See also:system of See also:police, whereby it became possible to discover and repress cruelty punishable under the See also:ordinary law. It is quite inaccurate to say that children had very few rights in See also:England, or that animals were better protected. But before the constitution of the See also:present police force, and in the See also:absence of any proper system of public prosecution, it is undeniable that numberless cases of neglect and ill-treatment went unpunished and were treated as nobody's business, because there was no person ready to undertake in the public See also:interest the protection of the children of cruel or negligent parents. In. 1889 a See also:statute was passed with the See also:special See also:object of preventing cruelty to children. This act was superseded in 1894 by a more stringent act, which was repealed by the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act 1904, in its turn superseded for the most See also:part by the Children Act 1908, which introduced many new provisions in the law relating to children and specific-ally deals with the offence of " cruelty " to them. This offence can only be committed by a person over sixteen in respect of a child under sixteen of whom he has " custody," " See also:charge " or " care." The act presumes that a child is in the custody of its parents, step-parents, or a person cohabiting with its parent, or of its guardians or persons liable by law to maintain it; that it is in the charge of a person to whom the parent has committed such charge (e.g. a schoolmaster), and that it is in the care of a person who has actual See also:possession or See also:control of it. Cruelty is defined as consisting in assault, ill-treatment (falling See also:short of actual assault), neglect, abandonment or exposure of the child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health, including injury to or loss of sight, See also:hearing or See also:limb, or any See also:organ of the See also:body or any mental derangement; and the act or omission must be wilful, i.e. deliberate and intentional, and not merely accidental or inadvertent. The offence may be punished either summarily or on indictment, and the offender may be sent to penal See also:servitude if it is shown that he was directly or indirectly interested in any sum of See also:money payable on the death of the child, e.g. by having taken out a policy permitted under the Friendly See also:Societies Acts. A parent or other person legally liable to maintain a child or See also:young person will be deemed to have " neglected " him by failure to provide adequate food, clothing, medical aid, or lodging, or if in the event of inability to provide such food, &c., by failure to take steps to procure the same under acts relating to the See also:relief of the poor. These statutes overlap the common law and the statutes already mentioned. Their real efficacy lies in the See also:main in the provisions which facilitate the taking of See also:evidence of young children, in permitting poor law authorities to prosecute at the expense of the rates, and in permitting a See also:constable on arresting the offender to take the child away from the accused, and the court of trial on conviction to See also:transfer the custody of the child from the offender to some See also:fit and willing person, including any society or body corporate established for the reception of poor children or for the prevention of cruelty to children. The See also:pro-visions of the acts as to See also:procedure and custody extend not only to the offence of cruelty but also to all offences involving bodily injury to a child under sixteen, such as abandonment, assault, See also:kidnapping and illegally engaging a child in a dangerous public performance. The act of 1908 also makes an endeavour to check the heavy mortality of infants through "overlaying," 1 enacting that where it is proved that the death of an See also:infant under three years of age was caused by suffocation whilst the infant was in See also:bed with some other person over the age of sixteen, and that that person was at the time of going to bed under the See also:influence of drink, that other person shall be deemed to have neglected the child in manner likely to cause injury to its health, as mentioned above. The acts have been utilized with See also:great zeal and on the whole with much discretion by various philanthropic societies, whose members make it their business to discover the ill-treated and neglected children of all classes in society, and particularly by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which is incorporated under royal See also:charter of the 28th of May 1895, for the purposes inter alia of preventing the public and private wrongs of children, and the corruption of their morals and of taking action to enforce the See also:laws for their protection. The act of 1908 enacted more stringent provisions against baby-farming (q.v.). The Infant See also:Life Protection Act of 1897 did not apply where only one child was taken, but now by the act of 1908, where a person undertakes for See also:reward the See also:nursing and See also:maintenance of one or more infants under the age of seven years apart from their parents or having no parents, he must give See also:notice in See also:writing to the See also:local authority within See also:forty-eight See also:hours from the reception of the child. If an infant is already in the care of a person without reward and he undertakes to continue the nursing for reward, such undertaking is a reception of the child. The notice to the local authority must See also:state the name, See also:sex, date and See also:place of See also:birth of the infant, the name and address of the person receiving the infant and of the person from whom the infant was received. Notice must also be given of any See also:change of address of the person having the care of the infant, or of the death of the infant, or of its removal to the care of some other person, whose name and address must also be given. It is the duty of local authorities to provide for the carrying-out in their districts of that portion of the act which refers to nursing and maintenance of infants, to appoint infants' protection visitors, to See also:fix the number of infants which any person may retain for nursing, to remoye infants improperly kept, &c. Relatives or legal guardians of an infant who undertake its nursing and maintenance, hospitals, convalescent homes, or institutions, established for the protection and care of infants, and conducted in See also:good faith for religious and charitable purposes, as well as boarding See also:schools at which efficient elementary See also:education is given, are exempt from the provisions of the act. The acts of 1904 and 19o8 See also:deal with many other offences in relation to children and young persons. The act of 1904 introduced restrictions on the employment of children which See also:lie on the border See also:land between cruelty and the regulation of child labour. It prohibits custodians of children from taking them, or letting them be, in the See also:street or in' public-houses to sing, See also:play, perform or sell between 9 P.M. and 6 A.M. These pro-visions apply to boys under fourteen and girls under sixteen. There are further prohibitions (I) on allowing children under eleven to sing, play, perform or be exhibited for profit, or offer anything for See also:sale in public-houses or places of public amusement at any See also:hour without a See also:licence from a justice, which is granted only as to children over ten and under stringent conditions; (2) on allowing children under sixteen to be trained as
I There has been some doubt as to whether it is more correct to soy a person " overlays " or " overlies " a child, and the question came up in See also:committee on the See also:bill. According to See also:Sir J. A. H. See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] CHILDERS, ROBERT CAESAR (1838-1876) |
[next] CHILDRENITE |