'To Shudder at the Bare Recital of Those Acts': Child Abuse, Family, and Montreal Courts in the Early Nineteenth Century

Type of resource
Authors/collaborators
Title
'To Shudder at the Bare Recital of Those Acts': Child Abuse, Family, and Montreal Courts in the Early Nineteenth Century
Abstract
The author uses archival and other primary sources to reanimate the judicial response to child abuse by family members in Montreal for the period 1825-1850. In a period before the operation of child protection agencies, the author argues that the records reveal a tentative but growing engagement with issues related to child abuse and a limited judicial response to impose limitations on parental authority. He points out that parents and guardians were prosecuted and imprisoned for a range of offences, including assault, aggravated assault, ill-usage, and attempted murder. While incest was not a cognizable offence during this period, the judicial archives also reveal some evidence of the existence of incest as a social phenomenon, as well as some prosecutions (generally brought under the charge of ravishment or, more unusually, abduction).
Book Title
Essays in the History of Canadian Law, vol. XI: Quebec and the Canadas
Place
Toronto, ON
Publisher
University of Toronto Press for the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
Date
2013
Pages
370-426
Language
en
Citation
Pilarczyk, Ian C. “‘To Shudder at the Bare Recital of Those Acts’: Child Abuse, Family, and Montreal Courts in the Early Nineteenth Century.” In Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Vol. XI: Quebec and the Canadas, edited by G. Blaine Baker and Donald Fyson, 370–426. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press for the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2013.
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