One of the fundamental and crucial issues in the field of juvenile delinquency is the criminal responsibility of young offenders and the criteria for its determination. It is an undeniable fact that children do not possess the same understanding of social realities as adults do, nor do they share an identical perception among themselves. This reality demands that, in order to hold children criminally responsible, we must attain an understanding of reality similar to theirs, or at the very least, view the social world through their eyes.

This paper adopts a genealogical approach to analyze the shifting trajectory of the English criminal justice system regarding juvenile offenders and children in conflict with the law. It aims to demonstrate which social factors drive penal reforms in the realm of youth justice. Ultimately, the study concludes that this issue is shaped as much by political and social imperatives—stemming from the public sense of insecurity caused by youth crime—as it is by the evolution of technical-legal doctrines. Where this oscillation and shift in perspective will ultimately lead is a question that requires the passage of time; nonetheless, it is evident that despite the efforts of criminal jurists and psychologists to place children in a distinct and notably more lenient position regarding liability, populist political and social demands have steered penal law toward greater punitiveness and severity.