Legal Concepts of Childhood

Concepts of who and what children are and what childhood consists of have changed over time. Our historical and contemporary notions of childhood also change according to the context of the interaction between the child and the state. This book is concerned with various ideas of what childhood consists of where the child is involved with the legal system. An identification of legal concepts of childhood can offer many insights into our treatment of children,the capacities which we expect them (possibly unfairly) to possess and the extent of any protection which they deserve or can expect from those charged with the responsibility for their welfare. Each essay in this collection focuses on a particular legal discipline which centrally involves children whether as litigants, victims or perpetrators of crimes, owners of property, recipients of welfare services etc. The object of the analysis is to assess how children are regarded by lawyers in each discipline; for example, as objects of concern, requiring protection; as autonomous possessors of rights; as lacking in moral consciousness or full mental capacity; or as fully aware of and accountable for their actions. In order to make comparisons with notions of childhood in other contexts, the substantive part of the book will also include essays on the perspectives on childhood at the core of other disciplines including sociology, psychology, philosophy and literature.

ISBN 1841131504   Pages 256 ISBN13 9781841131504 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Hart Publishing   Weight (grammes) 576 Imprint Hart Publishing   Published in Oxford Format Hardback   Height (mm) 234 Publication date 04 Dec 2001   Width (mm) 156 Library of Congress 2002279281   Spine width (mm) 17 DEWEY 346.0135   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC21

		List of Contributors
		Table of Cases
		Table of Legislation
Pt. I		Perspectives on Childhood
1		Legal Concepts of Childhood: an Introduction by Julia Fionda		3
2		Sociological Perspectives and Media Representations of Childhood by Chris Jenks		19
3		Philosophical Perspectives on Childhood by David Archard		43
4		Psychological and Psychiatric Perspectives by Quentin Spender and Alexandra John		57
Pt. II		The Child in Law
5		Youth and Justice by Julia Fionda		77
6		Children in Court by Allan Levy		99
7		Law, Literature and the Child by Ian Ward		111
8		Children Through Tort by Roderick Bagshaw		127
9		The Medical Treatment of Children by Penney Lewis		151
10		The Minor as (a) Subject: the Case of Housing Law by David Cowan and Nick Dearden		165
11		The Child in Family Law by Michael Freeman		183
12		Children's Rights and Education by Paul Meredith		203
13		Children and Social Security Law by Nick Wikeley		223
		Index		245

This publication provides a useful analysis of how our legal system views children. It will be of interest to all those involved with children in the legal system.The Review EditorChildRIGHTFebruary 2002The analyses presented here are accessible and, for readers who are unfamiliar with the law relating to children, they succeed in conveying some of the key shifts in thinking and policy that have taken place over the past two decades. The collection provides further evidence of the quality of the growing scholarship on children and the law.Jeremy Roche, The Open UniversityChildren and SocietyFebruary 2002

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