Editor’s Introduction: Juvenile Delinquency, Modernity, and the State 1 Social Justice Vol. 38, No. 4 1 Editor’s Introduction: Juvenile Delinquency, Modernity, and the State Heather Ellis * J uVeNile deliNqueNcy remaiNs a ceNtral term for academics aNd professioNals in sociology, politics, and law, and for many commentators in the media and popular press. in march 2011, a conference was held in Berlin with a view to exploring some of the reasons behind the term’s long-standing popularity. 1 most of the articles comprising this special issue were irst presented there. Many people who use the term “juvenile delinquency” in their everyday life and work (sociolo- gists, political scientists, social workers, and judges) frequently do so with little awareness of its long history and the wide variety of meanings with which it has been invested for more than two centuries. 2 Given that this term remains instru- mental in the categorization and sentencing of thousands of young people around the world, the fact that its meaning has varied dramatically according to time and place and still, many would argue, evades precise deinition should certainly make us think more carefully about how we use it in our own work. Historians who have examined the relationship between juvenile delinquency and the state have traditionally tended to portray it in the form of a rather oversimpliied grand narrative. usually, juvenile delinquency has been treated as a concrete social problem, a worrying side effect of “grand processes” of modernization (above all, industrialization and urbanization) in the West. in particular, the damage these processes are believed to have caused to traditional structures of authority—that is, the family and the apprenticeship system—has been blamed for the growth of uncontrolled gangs of young people on the streets of major cities from the early nineteenth century onward. 3 another classic feature of modernity, the tendency of the state to expand its functions and responsibilities, has generally been hailed as the most successful means of challenging (and ultimately eradicating) the problem of juvenile crime. 4 in this way, Western modernity is rescued from opprobrium, with the expanding state serving as the repository for a new civilizing force. this narrative is perhaps most visible in colonial contexts, where the expansion of Western state power in the form of imperialism (particularly in the exportation of youth justice systems) has often been hailed by those at the time and since as progressive and civilizing. 5 thus, despite the less pleasant aspects of the modernizing process * HeatHer ellis is guest editor of this issue. she is a senior lecturer at the faculty of education studies, liverpool Hope university (email: ellish@hope.ac.uk). she specializes in the history of generational conlict, education, and masculine identity and is the author of Generational Conlict and University Reform: Oxford in the Age of Revolution (leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012).