Dilemmas of Child Protection in Hungary During the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: Addressing the Issue of Morally Abandoned Children

Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (1867), Hungary underwent significant legal modernization, which extended to the regulation of endangered children. Within the evolving framework of state-led child protection, administrative and judicial branches constituted the core mechanisms aimed at safeguarding vulnerable minors. In the case of morally abandoned, delinquent, or at-risk children – those operating on the fringes of petty criminality – the state sought appropriate interventions, alternating between administrative and judicial approaches. The placement of materially abandoned children in state-run children’s shelters became possible under Decree No. 60.000 issued by the Ministry of the Interior in 1907, which, according to archival sources, was implemented in practice. The Juvenile Court Act (Act VII of 1913) allowed for the temporary or permanent removal of children from their original environments through specific measures: temporary decisions for non-punishable children and definitive rulings for juveniles. As a result, morally neglected children came to occupy the intersection of administrative and judicial state-led child protection systems.