Pomoc dzieciom przestępnym w II Rzeczypospolitej – instytucje kuratora sądowego i sądów dla nieletnich

Aim: The purpose of this article is to introduce the organization and operation of the guardianship system for delinquent children in the interwar period, with particular emphasis on the institution of the guardian ad litem and juvenile courts. Methods: The article uses historical methods applied in pedagogical research, primarily the historical analysis of source materials and the comparative method, allowing to evaluate the rich source material and show the detailed content of the presented topic. Results: One of the basic solutions adopted for delinquent youth became the establishment of the institution of guardians’ ad litem, permanently inscribed in the history of Polish probation and inseparable from juvenile justice. This apparatus functioned from 1919 to 1929, then transformed into the institution of juvenile probation officers at municipal and juvenile courts. Conclusions: The fact that it was decided at the very beginning of independent Poland to regulate the juvenile justice system demonstrates the need to help delinquent children. The legislative provisions of the time bear the hallmarks of a modern juvenile justice system based on the application of custodial and educational measures when dealing with minors. Many of them take account of the tasks of both upbringing and re-socialization, diagnostics, as well as prevention and control, which are so current today. Unfortunately, the realities of Poland at that time did not allow, mainly for economic reasons, to implement all of the solutions mentioned hereinabove, which does not change the fact that the period of the Second Republic was very creative for the Polish judicial thought and welfare policy.