In this Lit Hub article, Heather Montgomery explores the beginnings of the child protection system in the UK.

She argues that it was during the Victoria era that childhood began to be intensely scrutinized.
It was also during the Victorian era when it was decided that if a home did not meet the “middle-class norms of morality and decency” it was “seen as neglectful and the best course of action deemed to be separation from their children.”

Montgomery goes on to show that neglect of a child had “become a criminal offence in 1868” although few parents were actually prosecuted.

When parents were prosecuted, says Montgomery, “women, and mothers in particular, [were] more likely to be found guilty than men or their middle-class peers, and more likely to receive heavier sentences”.