The aim of this diploma thesis is to introduce and compare the rules and regulations of criminal responsibility and ways of punishing of youth offenders in the Czech Republic and in England and Wales. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part deals with rules and regulations in the Czech Republic, the second part deals with rules and regulations in England and Wales, and the third part compares the rules and regulations in both jurisdictions mentioned. The third part also includes de lege ferenda considerations about the possible usage of findings from the English jurisdiction in the Czech legal system. The first part of this thesis systematically describes relevant provisions of Act No. 218/2003 Sb., the Juvenile Justice Act (ZSVM). This act is partly based on a welfare model, when it accents protection of a youth against outer risk factors, and it is partly based on a justice model, when it imposes an obligation on a youth to take responsibility for his/her unlawful actions. Besides, it acknowledges the principles of restorative justice - it stresses the obligation of a youth to redress the harm he/she has caused, to satisfy the needs of his/her victim and to reintegrate back into society. ZSVM differentiates between three types of sanctions - educational, protective and criminal. The minimal...

The central aim of this descriptive and exploratory study is to empirically examine the views and perspectives of practitioners working with young people in the youth justice system in England and Wales. Based on a case study of Peterborough youth offending service (PYOS), the study adopts a multi-method approach. Interviews with 22 practitioners, observations of their practice and key documentary evidence are reviewed, which identify the processes involved in the core practice of key practitioners and a deeper understanding of how policy and legislation reform are experienced in practice. Practitioners play key roles as case managers in the intervention process, yet youth justice literature somewhat neglects the role and perspective of staff within multi-agency youth offending teams (Case, 2007), despite increasing focus on youth justice practice through organisational analyses (see for example, Burnett and Appleton, 2002; 2004a; Field, 2007; Holdaway et al., 2001; Newburn et al., 2002; Souhami, 2007; Stahlkopf, 2008), and much critique of youth justice policy in England and Wales (see for example, Goldson, 2002; Goldson and Muncie, 2006; Pitts, 2003; Smith, 2007). The central argument of this thesis is that knowledge (what is known about effective practice) is not applied effectively in practice. Questions are raised regarding the use of professional discretion and the accountability of practitioners working with young offenders within a perceived managerialist process which neglects individuals needs in favour of achieving targets and performance measures. The findings of this study support the view that the use of standardised assessment tools increase accountability of practitioners whilst reducing their professional discretion, which constrains practice. A lack of structural support created a cultural divide between management and practitioners, which further confounded their practice. Practitioners face a multitude of obstructions to their work with young people, which seem to be further rooted in the prioritisation of recording information and meeting targets, which results in less time attributed to planning and delivering interventions. In a climate of uncertainty for the youth offending service (YOS), in which doubts about its future are frequently raised and further reductions are made to YOS budgets, there is increased need for well-informed and supported practitioners to be working with young people who offend.

The cognitive and/or behavioural problems associated with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) place this population at increased risk of involvement in the justice system. Although FASD poses challenges at each stage of the justice system, legal discussion and commentary have pinpointed the sentencing stage as the phase in which the issue of FASD is most commonly raised and considered. The purpose of this study is to examine if (and how) FASD is being taking into consideration at sentencing. To this end, a comparative analysis of 87 sentencing judgments (42 FASD offenders and 45 non-FASD offenders) reported in Quicklaw was conducted. Cases were matched on most serious offence (assault, robbery and sexual assault) and jurisdiction (Yukon, British Columbia and Ontario). Descriptions of FASD and non-FASD offenders as reported by judges were found to differ in a number of significant ways. Similarly, sentencing purposes applied to each offender group emerged as distinct. Despite these distinctions, no differences were found in the type and length of sentence handed down (even after controlling for criminal record and breaches). These findings indicate a need for further research and possible policy changes.

The thesis deals with the problem of the monopoly structure of the modern justice system and the heavy regulation of most fields of dispute resolution. In this system, judges themselves comprise a self-interested group seeking relaxed regulation and increased rights from the government. The thesis describes inefficiencies and dangers stemming from the lack of market control of the modern justice system and suggests an alternative in the form of a private justice system. The purpose of this paper is to examine both the problem of successful implementation of competition into the current justice system, while describing various models as to how the private justice system could function without state control, with examples from history. This paper further examines the economic differences between private and public justice systems in terms of incentives, efficiency, the process of law creation, speed, and consumers' satisfaction, as well as the conditions under which different systems work best. The main conclusion of this paper is that society should allow all subjects desirous of opportunities to provide goods and services through new enterprises, even in areas currently the exclusive domain of the state, as doing so brings an increase in quality, speed of solution/service, and innovation.

A evolução da digitalização e virtualização dos processos judiciais, aliado ao crescente investimento na área de tecnologia da informação (TI), permitiu ao sistema de justiça criar e armanezar uma vasta quantidade de informações. Porém, apesar de todo investimento realizado em TI e o reconhecido avanço na normatização da estrutura do ambiente informacional, as informações jurídicas não tem gerado o esperado valor à atividade jurisdicional do sistema de justiça, que muitas vezes ainda recorrem a buscas manuais, incorrendo em informações sem a qualidade necessária, com maior demora para acessar informações com a utilidade desejada. O objetivo da pesquisa é analisar como a Governança da Informação se relaciona com os desafios da atividade jurisdicional no modelo de governança judicial do sistema de justiça, considerando que a Governança da Informação surge para preencher esse espaço não atendido pela governança da Tecnologia da Informação (TI), primeiro recolocando a informação como o recurso essencial e, segundo, demonstrando que o uso da informação, e não apenas a sua produção e armazenamento, deve ser considerado no processo de governança. Sendo assim, a Governança da Informação é um instrumento para reduzir problemas entre os agentes interessados na informação, baseando-se na teoria da agência, aliando sua estrutura à governança corporativa. Para atingir o objetivo foi utilizado o método de estudo de caso único, em unidades do sistema de justiça localizadas no estado do Acre: Tribunal de Justiça, Ministério Público e Defensoria Pública. Como contribuições dessa pesquisa estão a análise dos fatores e elementos que se espera contribuir para os desafios do ambiente informacional das empresas no diagnóstico e eventual adoção de programas de Governança da Informação, provendo um modelo particularmente associado à gestão mais célere, ética e estratégica das informações no ambiente das organizações do sistema de justiça. / The evolution of the digitalization and virtualization of judicial processes, together with the increasing investment in the area of information technology (IT), allowed the justice system to create and armanezar a vast amount of information. However, despite all the investment made in IT and the acknowledged advance in the normalization of the structure of the information environment, legal information has not generated the expected value of the judicial activity of the justice system, which often still resort to manual searches, incurring information without the necessary quality, with more delay to access information with the desired utility. The objective of the research is to analyze how Information Governance relates to the challenges of judicial activity in the justice system model of judicial system, considering that Information Governance arises to fill this space not served by the governance of Information Technology ), first by replacing information as the essential resource and secondly by demonstrating that the use of information, not just its production and storage, should be considered in the governance process. Thus, Information Governance is an instrument to reduce problems among agents interested in information, relying on agency theory, combining its structure with corporate governance. In order to reach the objective, the single case study method was used in units of the justice system located in the state of Acre: Court of Justice, Public Prosecutor's Office and Public Defender's Office. As contributions of this research are the analysis of the factors and elements that are expected to contribute to the challenges of the informational environment of companies in the diagnosis and eventual adoption of Information Governance programs, providing a model particularly associated with the faster, ethical and strategic management of information in the environment of justice system organizations.

The protection of survivors of sexual violence during court proceedings is as important as the court proceedings themselves, as any mishaps may impact greatly on the well-being and future engagement of these survivors with the criminal justice system. The issue of secondary victimization remains a problem faced by many survivors of sexual violence who try to seek justice for their ordeal. It is against this background that several international, regional and national documents have been enacted with hopes of mitigating the issue of secondary victimizations from the criminal justice system and its actors. The court as an institution within the criminal justice system is established to handle all criminal and civil cases within a defined jurisdiction and as such is charged to handle all cases of sexual violence filed before it. However, the role of the court in protecting victims especially victims of sexual violence is increasingly being questioned. Therefore, the dissertation seeks to explore the issues surrounding the protection of survivors of sexual violence in the Ghanaian court. To adequately explore the issue under consideration, a qualitative research approach was adopted, which entailed on-site observations and interviews. As a case study, the gender court was selected as the site for the research. The findings of the study support a strong argument for an expansive approach from the court and all stakeholders of the criminal justice system, from both structural and legal approaches as well as the need for an attitudinal change to harness the protection of survivors of sexual violence who seek justice for their ordeal. Thus, the findings point to the need for urgent attention to help reduce the risk of secondary victimization in the court.

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A dearth in research pertaining to the secondary victimisation of child victims in the criminal justice system (CJS) exists. The study set out to conduct a criminological investigation into the prevalence and nature of secondary victimisation of child victims, identifying whether current policies and legislation are enforced in practice, and considering and describing measures which should be taken to reduce the occurrence of secondary victimisation of child victims in the CJS. In order to achieve this aim, a qualitative research approach was applied and Piquero and Hickman’s extended control balance theory guided the study. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with role-players who have at least two years’ experience working with child victims in the CJS. These role-players consisted of one social worker in private practice and social workers from the Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children. By utilising thematic analysis, distinct themes and sub-themes were identified. The results indicated that child victims invariably encounter secondary victimisation whilst proceeding through the CJS. This victimisation was reiterated to be related to various criminal justice professionals who deal with child victims without the sufficient training and knowledge needed. The effect of secondary victimisation was proven to be substantial on child victims and showed to often result in withdrawal, delinquent behaviours as well as suicidal tendencies. The majority of the participants affirmed that the current provisions, although powerful in theory, are not being enforced in practice and expressed the dire need for training to be provided to all professionals who engage with child victims. / Dissertation (MA)--University ofPretoria, 2019. / Social Work and Criminology / MA / Unrestricted

Male perpetrators have long been over-represented in the criminal justice system. This seems to have resulted in a picture of perpetrators as generally being male. This study aims to investigate differences in the portrayal of perpetrators in relation to gender in the Swedish justice system, by performing a discourse analysis on twelve judgements with assault as the main crime classification. Previous research shows that female perpetrators more often are treated with leniency by the court, compared to male perpetrators. This usually leads to women receiving shorter sentences. There have also been studies that show that in media and literature, female perpetrators are portrayed as less, or in cases of severe violent crimes as more, responsible for the crime committed, than a male would be for the equivalent crime. This study shows that female perpetrators are portrayed as less responsible for their violent actions in regards to the crime committed, than male perpetrators. The discourse analysis of the judgments shows that there is a tendency to portray the women’s violence as depending on circumstances, and the men’s violence as depending on them as persons. This indicates that there are discourses in society that establish women as non-violent and men as violent.

The purpose of this study was to discover the current awareness of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) regarding the link between language disorder and the juvenile justice system. It is to consider how speech-language pathology, as a profession, think about the implications of language disorder on life outcomes as well as determine the need for speech-language intervention within the juvenile justice system. A Google Form was created and distributed to current speech-language pathologists that have their Certificate of Clinical competence, and have experience working with students in the educational setting. Results suggest SLPs are aware of the link between LD and the juvenile justice system as well as the aspects of language found difficult for these young offenders, but training and professional development on this topic is minimal. Participants report an interest in interprofessional practice and are positioned to become advocates for young offenders with LD in the juvenile justice system.