Child Rescue (c. 1860 - c. 1910)

People involved in the child rescue belonged to the nineteenth century evangelical movement. They were social reformers with strong protestant morals which they believed the rest of society should adopt. They thought that society's future depended on children's removal from slums, which were allegedly breeding grounds for vice and crime. Since these reformers saw the parents as the enemies of their children, they sought to have total control of them. Such ideas were influential during the lead up to the introduction of the 1896 Youthful Offenders, Destitute and Neglected Children's Act which established the Neglected Children's Department.