The Child Question and Juvenile Delinquency During the Early Republican Era

This study tries to investigate juvenile delinquency of early republican era throughout the context of "child question". Initially, concept pf "childhood", a historically and socially constructed category, has been defined and contextualized as such. Then, juvenile delinquency has been interrogated within this conceptual framework. "Child Question", a significant debate conducted throughout 1920s and 30s, has functioned as a litmus-paper that showed the prestige, success and consolidation capacity of the existing regime. Hence, juvenile delinquency crystallized the exclusions and inclusion mechanisms of the regime. This thesis also tries to shed light on the carceral practices of children beside, the way that the elites perceive the issue. Legal texts and the writings of the jurists of that period have been surveyed. In the meantime, several magazines of the print-media have been examined to mention about the public-opinion concerning the issue.

(Approved by Prof. Dr. Zafer Toprak, Assoc. Prof. M. Asım Karaomerlioglu, Asist. Prof. Nadir Özbek)