“A Sad and . . . Odious Industry”: The Problem of Child Begging in Late Nineteenth-Century Paris

This article examines the perception and treatment of child beggars in Third Republic Paris. By the nineteenth century’s close, public opinion and government policy no longer cast these children as threatening. Instead, the republic passed legislation and established institutions to protect the young and destitute; however, these measures also tried to ensure that these children became industrious members of the working class. Moreover, in practice, contemporaries continued to view children engaging in illicit commerce with suspicion and worried over their current and future loss of productivity. By using discussions around child labor to study the child beggar, this article offers a new perspective for considering the origins of the victim versus threat dichotomy that characterized late nineteenth-century approaches to the juvenile delinquent.