Transported beyond the seas: criminal juveniles

Using an interdisciplinary approach, combining both criminological and historical methods, this paper will demonstrate how nominal data-linkage of digital records, can be used to build-up a picture of historical, non-elite lives. To do this a transnational sample of juvenile offenders who were caught up in the nineteenth-century criminal justice system will be traced from their conviction at the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court in London, to their punishment of transportation. These juveniles were convicted under fourteen years-of-age and transported to Van Diemen’s Land (VDL), now known as Tasmania. Trends can be uncovered through exploring the common factors and experiences present in the lives of these juveniles by measuring different variables including; crimes, punishments, employment and family formation, which can be explored to understand life-outcomes. Then through identifying typical and atypical offenders, detailed biographies can be created in order to interrogate those trends and humanise offenders. While such juveniles will inevitably be tied to the criminal records in which they are found, it is possible to use these records - combined with newspapers and civil records - to uncover individual lives.