Du tourisme pénitentiaire à “l'Internationale des philanthropes”. La création d'un réseau pour la protection de l'enfance à travers les congrès internationaux (1840–1914)

Abstract

This paper proposes a kind of summary of research made from twenty years by historians and jurists about the question of philanthropy, ≪patronage≫, and the origins of the protection of children in Europe. The principal sources are the International Penitentiary Congresses between 1840 and 1914 and the International Congresses of protection of children (1880–1914). Two periods and two generations of philanthropists have to be distinguished. The first one (1840–1850) that we can call the time of the ≪Sainte Alliance≫ of European philanthropists against poverty and criminality, is characterised by individual action of personalities like prisons inspectors (Ducpétiaux in Belgium, Lucas in France) or private philanthropists like Suringar in the Netherlands who travel around Europe to visit reformatories and prisons to compare and promote their own solutions. This is the time of ≪penitentiary tourism≫ and comparison between different models of treatment of juvenile delinquency, based on the concept of ≪guilty children≫, who have to be punish and re‐educated.. The second one, after 1880, is characterised by a new generation of philanthropists, members of government, ministers, lawyers, and the lobby of private associations of “hommes d'œuvres” and “dames patronesses” who try to change legislations and reform the ancient system of prison's children and reformatories. This the time of protection, “patronage” and prevention, based on a new concept of “children in danger≫ who have to be protected and not punish. The confrontation between European legislations and American experience of ‘juvenile courts” will give birth to a new model of treatment of juvenile delinquency, with more protection, less punishment. That stay the norm in Europe until these last years. But we can see today the return of a new American model, more punitive, based on the ideology of “tolerance zero” and the coming back to prisons.

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