347 Following international models different correctional workhouses were established for men, women and children. They had a very mixed clientele. These establishments were intended to simultaneously provide upbringing and reformation together with a short term profit. The most important alternative for children without means and those not engaged in any service was, however, placement in some household under the Ffousehold Service Ordinance (Sw. legostadgan) which put the subject in a very subordinate positionto the master. This solution was the starting point in legal history for the foster homes system whichfollowed and which provided that the foster parents received compensation through the foster child’s labour. The tone of the legal provisions within penal law also sharpened from the Vasa period until the middle of the 18th century. Further, however, the written penal law aimed to appear as inexorable and to be implemented in the first instance. The Courts of Appeal had on the other hand the right to modify the application of the rules, that is to say take into account the “circumstances” of the particular case. Here the local community’s assessment of the accused was afforded great significance in the selection of the available options, namely that he should be sentenced according to the letter of the law, in the worst case removed as an undesirable, or be sentenced to a less severe punishment than that provided by law. Recidivismwas considered to be a deeply rooted evil and spoke in favour of a stringent punishment. Impulsive acts were on the other hand considered to suggest a better social prognosis which generally spoke in favour of the child or immature persons. The age limits for full criminal competence was since the Middle Ages 15 years, but those who did not obtain a satisfactory Christian upbringing should be adjudicated less stringently, as with children. Conversely, a 14 year old could in accordance with the Roman law maximmalitia SHpplet aetatem be adjudicated as adults if his malice was considered to exceed his years. It was not merely the criminal act which was the subject of the trial but even the perpetrator’s personality and social circumstances. The 1734 Book on Crimes (Sw. Missgarningsbalken) codified the maxim concerning the age of criminal competence for juvenile offenders whose malice was considered to exceed their years. At the same time the law makers pointed out the importance of the family as a crime-preventive unit. Transgressors between the ages of 7 and 15 years should certainly not be punished in the same manner as adults but the courts could order the parents to admonish and chastise the child, which usually meant whipping. The measure had a dualistic nature. On the one hand it was not regarded as “real” punishment but rather education and the parents were not considered to be an authority executing punishment. On the other hand the legal rules were found in the Book on Crimes and the condition was that the child had violated the law. During the latter part of the 18th century new ideas concerning care of
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