Summer 2000, we visited a castle in Luxembourg
The castle was built in the early Middle Ages about 1100 C.E. There was a jailhouse located in the interior courtyard. The main building housed an interrogation chamber. Rough times for people who fell victim of the authorities. However, it has to be compared to the life at that time, which was tough, brutish and short for most people.
I asked myself: how the discrepancy between life of the ordinary "free" person and the incarcerated would compare to contemporary life?
Early Ideas about Juvenile Delinquency
The Scared Straight program was already implemented: "The first degree of torture was the sight of the instruments. In the case of children or persons over the age of seventy, one did not go beyond that stage" (Foucault 1977 Discipline and Punish, p.40)
The law: Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (CCC) 1530
The Holy Roman Empire lasted about 800 years from 962 to 1806. The CCC inteded to unify the legal system of the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire (not to be confused with the Roman Empire) comprised Western Europe sans Great Britain. The US and Great Britain still have a very different legal system than the Europeans. Still there are some communalies.
The concept of a Juvenile Delinquent can be examplified in the CCC. If you go to the original text of the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina you see under "Von Jungen Dieben"
"164. Item so der dieb oder diebin jrs alter vnder viertzehen jaren weren, die sollen vmb diebstall, on sonder vrsach, auch nit vom leben zum todt, gericht, sonder der obgemelten leibstraff gemeß, mit sampt ewiger vrphede gestrafft werden. W o aber der dieb nahent bei vierzehen jaren alt wer, vnd der diebstall groß oder obbestimpt beschwerlich vmbstende, so geuerlich dabei gefunden würden, also daß die boßheyt das alter erfüllen möcht, So sollen Richter vnd vrtheyler deßhalb auch, (wie hernach gemelt) radts pflegen, wie eyn solcher junger dieb an gut, leib oder leben zustraffen sei."
Yes, this hard to decipher. From what I understand it basically implicates that (1) a person at the age 14 or under is to be treated as a juvenile. (2) Theft and other crimes are not to be punished by death, but more lenient. (3) If the young person is close to be 14 and if the crime is severe, the person can be treated as an adult at the digression of the judge. These are three core principles we see reflected in our current US JD system. Put less politely: in the US we currently treat our juveniles pretty medieval. Or in the words of “Pulp Fiction” we get medieval on our kids.
You can click on the illustrative pictures to get enlargements!
The Castle
