The Road to Kilbrandon

This final chapter brings the historical account up to date and draws some overall conclusions, highlighting the connections between the period studied in detail and later changes. The chapter opens by examining developments in the inter-war years and then moves on to consider the Kilbrandon Report. This includes discussion of the background to the Report and argues that in important respects William Watson can be seen as foreshadowing Kilbrandon. The following part of the chapter presents key conclusions in the following areas: the impact of diversionary systems; childhood in the nineteenth century; the underlying tensions, conflict and compromise within nineteenth-century juvenile justice reform; and the areas in which the book poses challenges to existing thought. The focus of the penultimate section is on research conclusions in relation to criminalisation and the key factors which operated together to criminalise children. The final section discusses transjurisdictional issues which have emerged in the book, and draws together topics of concern and debate which recurred throughout the period studied and which remain highly relevant to contemporary juvenile justice.