Juvenile and youth delinquency is a worldwide social issue whose meaning has shifted over time and differs in urban and rural areas. Often considered an effect of economic migration, delinquency is also a result of rapid urbanization. Although juvenile delinquency in urban spaces has always been important in the history of crime, social historians have also adopted an interest to study change over time regarding what constitutes juvenile delinquency and how it has affected societies. In this paper, I aim to explore the social issue of juvenile delinquency in South Africa in 1910-1948 by examining how juvenile delinquency was constructed as a concept, how it related to phenomena such as urbanization and industrialization, as well as how juvenile delinquency was considered a racialized issue. This paper not only builds on the historiography of children and youth studies in South Africa, but also informs about the views of African nationalists, elites and traditionalists regarding delinquency among the juveniles and the youth. Juvenile and youth delinquency became a major social problem in the early to mid-twentieth century in cities and towns where there was an influx of migrants in search of economic opportunities. By the 1930s, Johannesburg was ‘swamped and overwhelmed’ with migrant workers who regarded themselves as townsmen; their children born and bred in the city’s townships. The large number of African children which were present in urban spaces caused the rise of a ‘native problem’ which was conveyed by the increase in urbanization, the breakdown of tribal life and family ties. This paper pursues how the ‘native problem’ of juvenile and youth delinquency was perceived, discussed and addressed in South Africa during the first half of the twentieth century as well as the extent to which socio-economic conditions in urban spaces contributed to juvenile and youth delinquency among Africans.
Keywords: juvenile, delinquency, youth, children, urbanization, industrialization, urban areas