Juvenile delinquency was a major social problem in nineteenth-century Liverpool. The 1839 Constabulary Report spoke of an army of young thieves, 1,200 strong, taught and manipulated by 2,000 adults. The figures might have been exaggerated but others also highlighted Liverpool's unique juvenile problem. Prison inspector Captain Williams believed that more young criminals lived in Liverpool than in any other major manufacturing or commercial centre. ‘Juvenile crime bears an unusually dark aspect in Liverpool,’ wrote John Clay in 1853. Two years later, in a letter to Lord Stanley, Clay stated that Liverpool ‘stands more in need of [reformatory schools] than any place I know’. Porcupine stated: ‘Liverpool is overrun by these adopted children of the devil.’ Towards the end of the century the situation showed no signs of improving. In 1880, 1,054 juvenile offenders were arrested in Liverpool. Ten years later, 1,331 children were arrested. The increase might reveal a growth of juvenile crime or it might simply illustrate a greater determination on behalf of the police to clamp down on young offenders. Nevertheless, in his 1896 report, the Chief Inspector of Reformatories maintained: ‘There is no town which contains so difficult a population as that of Liverpool.’

The Causes of Juvenile Crime

The causes of juvenile delinquency were much debated in Victorian Britain. A whole range of factors were thought to be involved. A private reformatory in Mason Street, Edge hill, kept records of the boys received into its care.