This thesis on the subject of Justice and child citizenship deals with the repression, control and (mis)management of childhood in Portugal between 1820 and 1978. Then, focussing on the study of concrete practices, it writes the history of the first 50 years of existence of the 'Tutoria Central da Infância e Refúgio Anexo' (1927-1978) in Coimbra. The main goals that guided the analysis of two centuries of the organization and development of social and judicial justice for children were the following: To analyse the international debates and their influences on the laws, institutions and systems of observation and treatment of children and adolescents in Portugal; To describe the context of the social and political construction of the problem of infancy; To write the history of the judicial institutions in Coimbra and their practices of repression, control and management of the child and youth population, with emphasis on the practices of observation, treatment and organization of daily life in the Shelter (adjacent to and) run by the Tutoria Central da Infância. Research was based on the analysis of institutional handwritten sources (from Centro Educativo dos Olivais, Tribunal de Menores de Coimbra, Instituto de Habitação e Reabilitação Urbana and Universidade de Coimbra), written sources of different kinds (legislation, religious tracts, minutes of scientific meetings, local and national newspapers), besides specialised bibliography. Oral sources were also used: interviews with experts (legal experts, heads of institutions, caseworkers) and testimonies provided by relatives of the staff of Tutoria and Refúgio de Coimbra were gathered. These testimonies supplied information not available in written records. Both at the international and national level, starting in the 19thcentury the question of childhood encompassed youngsters of several ages and with different problems and needs, and its main purpose was to provide and train workers for the labour force. Thus, the assistance to children and adolescents according to their needs was intertwined with the policy of integrating them professionally and socially; agricultural and industrial working houses that aimed at socializing stray and delinquent youngsters of both sexes to make them "socially useful" spread throughout the western world. The 20thcentury introduced the discourse of children's rights and established the relationship between needs and rights (poverty, health, education, justice). In the 1920s, laws protecting children spread throughout Europe and, as a consequence, so did the special penalty framework for dealing with minors, based on crime prevention for the protection of society. Portugal was a pioneer in this matter, with the Law for the Protection of Childhood being approved in 1911. After World War II, the emergence of a number of welfare states worldwide expanded the concept of social prevention, and new social policies were implemented that protected the rights of children. In Portugal, however, crime prevention was the goal of all forms of assistance as late as 1978, a doctrine that was linked to the longevity of the Estado Novo and its vested interest in implementing a policy of youth control. Thus, from within the discourse of youth protection emerged a system of protection and guardianship, based on a logic of social and/or criminal behaviour control, favouring regular testing (medical, anthropological, psychological, school and social) and trial of minors, as you can see in the analysis of the history of the institutions and of the children and adolescents institutionalized in Coimbra starting in 1927-28.Monitor and subject lived in a closed, panoptic system, up to 1974. Changes in leadership and the "April Revolution" brought a degree of democratization to the institution. In what concerns court proceedings, its rules didn't change until the Organização Tutelar de Menores (Juvenile Guardianship Rules) of 1978. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]