The purpose of this article is to explore the discourses about children at moral risk in Portugal in the early decades of the twentieth century. Reflecting changing attitudes to delinquency that began to emerge at the beginning of the twentieth century, children at risk became the subject and target of prophylactic interventions, designed with the aim of prevent delinquency and crime. Based on analysis of legislation concerned with child delinquency and protection, and of one magazine, A Tutoria - Revista mensal defensora da infância, published between 1912 and 1916, we examine how the notion of "child at moral risk" is constructed, describe its transformation on a public issue and analyze the strategies developed to ensure their normality.
Modernity; Childhood; Marginality; Children at risk.