350 Swedish law was influenced by the international trends. The Council on Legislation proposed in its criminal lawproposal of 1832 that the most severe punishment should be reduced for criminals who were between the ages of 15 and 18 years. The proposals was subjected to much criticismfor not representing the requirements of justice. The Council on Legislation also proposed that young transgressors under 15 years who did not have criminal competence, as a complement to the corporal punishment adopted from the 1734 legislation, should be liable to be placed in public reformatory institution if places were available. The ideological questions also had socio-economic dimensions. Was the care of juvenile offenders a matter for the state penal systemor for the local communities? The revision of the structure of the systemmeant that responsibility for poor relief and the elementary schools was transferred to the municipalities while the prisons and workhouses for the adult violators continued to be a central (state) function. The reformatory institutions for youngtransgressors were based on the one hand on a legal violation, the regulation of which was found in penal law and the application lay with the courts through criminal cases. On the other hand the measures were intended to replace inadequate private persons responsible for upbringing. This had certain implications for the local societies’ poor relief. A central issue was thus: who should finance the special treatment of young transgressors, the state or the municipalities? During the 1840’s there was established, on a private-municipal initiative, a number of reformatory institutions intended for juvenile delinquents in the ages close to the limits for criminal competence, 15 years. During all the Parliaments from 1840/41 to 1856/58 there were private members’ bills concerning state financial support to the philanthropic welfare institutions. The bills had initially considerable support but at the time of the new revised Swedish Penal Code’s arrival in 1864 support had reduced to a handful of farmers fromthe southern parts of Sweden. The Penal Code of 1864 established the age limit of 15 years for criminal competency. Younger transgressors were subject to being placed in public reformatory institutions but the organisational and financial issues remained unregulated. For juvenile delinquents who had reached 15 but not 18 years there was also introduced a general remission of the most severe punishments. The Swedish legislation deviated in several respects from the system which had been introduced in France and Great Britain two decades previously. No prisons had been specially established for young prisoners but transgressors over 15 years were detained at the ordinary prison and correctional establishments and were either confined incells or common prisons under general rules. The state showed the way from punishment to care, but transferred to the private and municipal sectors the function of establishing and running the institutions for care which were intended to take the place of parents and masters.
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