This article seeks to challenge the prevailing view that child protection legislation introduced in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods was characterised by a victim/threat duality. An examination of the parliamentary debates leading to the passage of major reforming Acts leads to a more complex construction of children. While the classic duality was present in respect of some issues earlier in the period under examination, it gave way to a view which placed greater emphasis on the child as a victim. At the same time, the law began, in an admittedly limited sense, to recognise children as agents with individual stories capable of contributing to the legal process, especially through increased capability to participate at trials. This conclusion can add significantly to our understanding of how the law understood childhood before the development of the modern children's rights movement.

中文翻译：

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双重性复杂化：维多利亚州《儿童保护法》重新构想儿童的构造

本文旨在挑战一种普遍的观点，即维多利亚时代和爱德华时代晚期引入的儿童保护立法具有受害人/威胁双重性的特征。对导致通过主要改革法案的议会辩论的审查导致儿童的建造更加复杂。虽然在本报告所述期间较早的某些问题上出现了经典的二元性，但它却让位给了一个观点，该观点更加强调了作为受害者的儿童。同时，从公认的有限意义上讲，法律开始承认儿童是具有个别故事的代理人，这些故事能够为法律程序做出贡献，特别是通过提高参加审判的能力。