Conference - Le traitement judiciaire des mineurs sous l’Occupation

After having been amended almost forty times, the February 2, 1945 decree on juvenile delinquents was repealed when the juvenile criminal justice code was adopted. At a time when a bill is being proposed to combat the key idea that minors should not be judged as minors, it is worth looking back at the origins of the judicial treatment of minors.
Both the First and Second World Wars saw an explosion in juvenile delinquency. From the 1930s onwards, the choice was made to focus on education in addition to repression, in order to compensate for the weaknesses of the 1912 legislation. Under the Vichy regime, this approach took on a new dimension, with the aim of re-educating young people. The result was an experimental policy that tested its effects. In particular, the law of July 27, 1942, implemented in a piecemeal fashion, was repealed at the time of the Liberation, but some of its orientations were subsequently taken up again.