Juvenile justiceAdministration ofNew South Wales.Juvenile delinquentsRehabilitationThis study examines the process of Youth Justice Conferencing in New South Wales within the context of the theory and aims of the restorative justice movement. Analysis of relevant literature and theory suggests that restorative justice is a broad and encompassing movement that entails a decision making process where victims, communities and offenders come together in a joint response to an offence. Although this breadth has allowed and encouraged a proliferation of programs that respond to particular needs and particular demands of culture and social context, the consequence is that both understandings and practices of restorative justices are variable. When theoretical understandings are so varied there will necessarily be a lack of commonality in the way principles are articulated. If practice is not linked directly to principled theory it is inevitable that processes will be vulnerable at all levels to the interaction between context, situations and participant characteristics that may easily deflect the focus from the true purpose of restorative justice. This thesis attempts to clarify the restorative principles relevant to the NSW program with reference to Braithwaite and Pettit???s republican theory (1990) and their notion of dominion. In turn these principles are used to identify five practical elements to be used as a framework to guide youth conferences. Such a framework highlights potential areas for improvement in conference preparation and practice. A case study approach was used to collect data and involved the observation of eighty five Youth Justice Conferences in three New South Wales conferencing regions. As well, one hundred and fifty two currently practising Youth Justice Conferencing practitioners (Police, Conveners, Managers) in New South Wales completed a mail out questionnaire. Findings from the study suggest that conference processes are influenced by the presence or absence of five particular elements: the attendance of victims, the attendance of communities, the attendance of offender support, reparation to victims, communities and offenders and the experience of non-domination during the conference space. However, findings also suggest that ???situational??? factors may mediate these key elements to enhance or compromise the overall process. This thesis suggests that many of the issues arising in NSW conferences result from the failure to articulate the links between restorative justice theory and practice. While in NSW such links may intentionally have been unarticulated in order to encourage a freedom within the process, in reality the lack of clarification has led to a freedom in discretion that sometimes diminishes the chance of success. Therefore it proposes the need for a more articulated translation of theory into principles that will in turn frame practice. In this way the thesis uses the normative theory proposed by Braithwaite and Pettit (1990) to provide an explanatory and ideal framework for best practice in NSW Youth Justice Conferencing.

The youth justice family group conference (FGC) is a statutory decision making process whereby the young person, their family/whanau, state officials and the victim of the offence come together to decide on a response to offending by that young person. The FGC is an integral part of the youth justice system, involving thousands of young people and their families each year. There is a considerable amount of literature available on the youth justice FGC, most notably in regard to the purported restorative justice nature of the process. However, for a legal process which involves so many young people on a daily basis, there is little information available on the due process rights of young people in the FGC. This thesis seeks to remedy this gap in the research knowledge. Firstly, this thesis establishes the theoretical framework for the rights of the young person in the youth justice system. The historical context and theoretical justification for these rights is considered, and the benchmarks for rights coming from international and national human rights standards are identified. A key theoretical issue is the application of rights to the FGC. It is argued that although the FGC differs in format from the adversarial criminal process, it remains a state process involved in resolving a breach of the criminal law, and thus the young person's rights should be safeguarded. Secondly, this thesis evaluates legislation, policy and practice relating to the rights of the young person in the FGC. Three key areas of rights are considered: legal assistance, how the offence is proved, and outcomes of the FGC. Reference is made to practice examples derived from observation of the FGC in two centres in New Zealand. Finally, as the FGC is certain to remain an integral part of the youth justice system, recommendations are made as to how legislation and practice could be improved to better safeguard the rights of young people in this process.

<p>The aim of this thesis is to scrutinise the statements from the social authorities to the criminal courts in the juvenile justice process, and to analyse in what extent these statements influenced the criminal courts in their penalty sentencing for boys aged 15-17 years, suspected and convicted for assault and battery and grand assault and battery, in Stockholm County the years of 1998 and 2000.</p><p>In 1998 a child’s perspective and the concept of the best interest of the child was introduced in the Social services act. A legal reform in 1999 in the criminal code introduced the concept of just desert for juvenile offenders, to make the juvenile justice system more predictable and fair and to make the statements more clarifying to the courts. Laws, preparatory documents and legal doctrine are studied. Theoretically, discourse analysis and neoinstitutional organisational theories are points of departure. The empirical material consists of criminal statistics, 103 statement from the welfare agencies and 103 criminal court records. The social authorities statements are scrutinised to discern specific patterns of intervention and then analysed together with criminal court records. The result indicates that the juvenile justice system seems to be unpredictable and unfair due to several factors linked to each other. There is a striking uncertainty in the statements because of great variations. The concept of the best interest of the child is hardly expressed as an interest in the statements. Social interventions are proposed both on the behalf of the child’s needs and to punish the child in a criminal justice mode. The statements seem to influence the courts sentencing in a great extent but there are difficulties to discern the grounds for differences in criminal sentencing. The juvenile justice system and the social services laws seem to be incompatible by contradictions in terms.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to scrutinise the statements from the social authorities to the criminal courts in the juvenile justice process, and to analyse in what extent these statements influenced the criminal courts in their penalty sentencing for boys aged 15-17 years, suspected and convicted for assault and battery and grand assault and battery, in Stockholm County the years of 1998 and 2000. In 1998 a child’s perspective and the concept of the best interest of the child was introduced in the Social services act. A legal reform in 1999 in the criminal code introduced the concept of just desert for juvenile offenders, to make the juvenile justice system more predictable and fair and to make the statements more clarifying to the courts. Laws, preparatory documents and legal doctrine are studied. Theoretically, discourse analysis and neoinstitutional organisational theories are points of departure. The empirical material consists of criminal statistics, 103 statement from the welfare agencies and 103 criminal court records. The social authorities statements are scrutinised to discern specific patterns of intervention and then analysed together with criminal court records. The result indicates that the juvenile justice system seems to be unpredictable and unfair due to several factors linked to each other. There is a striking uncertainty in the statements because of great variations. The concept of the best interest of the child is hardly expressed as an interest in the statements. Social interventions are proposed both on the behalf of the child’s needs and to punish the child in a criminal justice mode. The statements seem to influence the courts sentencing in a great extent but there are difficulties to discern the grounds for differences in criminal sentencing. The juvenile justice system and the social services laws seem to be incompatible by contradictions in terms.

Problem gambling currently affects between 5-7% of youth ages 12-18 (Hardooon & Derevensky, 2002); however, rates of problem gambling among youth who are involved with the Juvenile Justice System are more than twice that of school sample rates (Lieberman & Cuadrado, 2002). Furthermore, disordered gambling often co-occurs with substance use and criminal activity (Huang & Boyer, 2007), issues that are compounded in the Juvenile Justice population. The current study assessed gambling behaviors and risk factors of 145 youth involved in juvenile, juvenile drug, and family courts. Results indicated that nearly 13% of these youth are currently problem gamblers, and that males and African-Americans had higher problem gambling rates than female and Caucasian youth. Furthermore, gambling-related crime, substance use, scope of gambling activities, and time in detention facilities were all predictive of problem gambling severity, while suicidal ideation, urban environment, and lottery sales per capita were not. Finally, having a parent with a gambling problem also emerged as a risk factor;however, the risk was greater for males than for females. These results present a distinct need for youth to be screened for gambling problems upon entering and exiting the Juvenile Justice System, and for prevention and intervention services to be offered within juvenile and family court settings. Furthermore, communities need to take an active role in preventing youth gambling problems through increasing public awareness and insuring that appropriate and accurate messages reflecting gambling opportunities and outcomes are presented.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Diversion is one of the programmes instituted within the Child Justice System. Its aim is to make punishment more rehabilitative and restorative. Prior to the Child Justice Bill, juvenile offenders were prosecuted under the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA). In the absence of any provision and consideration for children and their context, the CPA proved to be too harsh when prosecuting juvenile offenders. It is within this context that the need for reform of the CPA was sought, a search for procedure which would solely deal with child offenders and which would be more suited to child offenders. In an attempt to explore this process, the present study investigates diversion as a programme designed for dealing with child offenders within the Child Justice System and perspectives of deviance which underlie diversion. Broadly, the focus of the research has been on the following issues: how the probation officers interpret the different criteria from the Child Justice Bill 70 of 2003 and subsequently the Child Justice Bill 70 of 2007 in order to select the most appropriate form of diversion, understanding of the Child Justice System, how this justice system works and what the justice personnel look for when deciding on an appropriate sentence for the juvenile offender. The research was carried out in South Africa, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, in a small town known as Port Shepstone, which is an hour s drive from Durban. It gives an in - depth analysis of diversion by explaining the perceptions and opinions of justice personnel on diversion. The thesis further explored the criteria that are used by the probation officers in assessing the juvenile offender for diversion and the nature of the diversion programme selected. Using a qualitative approach I sought to explore different discursive practices, opinions and perspectives within the Child Justice System and particularly within the diversion programme. In an attempt to gain understanding on the above issues, I conducted open - ended interviews with Child Justice System personnel, probation officers and prosecutors.

La Loi sur la protection de la jeunesse prévoit que la détermination des mesures de protection peut faire l'objet d'une décision du Tribunal de la jeunesse ou, alternativement, d'une entente sur mesures volontaires (emv) proposée par un intervenant de la Direction de la protection de la jeunesse et acceptée par le jeune et ses parents. La recherche porte sur le second mode d'application de la Loi. Elle établit la problématique de l'emv en théorie du droit et propose une observation sociologique de la pratique de l'emv dans les cas de troubles de comportements sérieux (art. 38h) L.P.J.). Une problématique scientifique de l'emv commande l'interdisciplinarité. Il s'agit de retracer les origines conceptuelles de cette alternative à la judiciarisation dans des disciplines externes, puis d'insérer cette connaissance en théorie du droit. Le concept d'emv relève de deux mouvements différents, celui de l'intervention contractuelle en travail social et celui de la gouvernance contractuelle en droit. Ce dernier comprend la transaction de droit public, le contrat administratif et le droit souple (soft law). Ces deux mouvements participent d'une même vague de fond théorique, qui déferle actuellement sur l'ensemble des sciences humaines, et qui inclut le contrat de l'analyse transactionnelle en psychologie ainsi que la pédagogie de contrat. Le concept de contrat pédagogique désigne cette mouvance scientifique. Il est inhérent à la modernité et il constitue une mutation paradigmatique par rapport à la division droit privé/droit public, d'où la nécessité, pour définir l'emv, d'un concept nouveau et indépendant par rapport à cette division: le concept d'autorité normative. La recherche sociologique relève de la méthode de l'entretien compréhensif formalisée par Jean-Claude Kaufmann. Elle a pour but d'observer l'effectivité de l'emv. Les entretiens auprès de mères et de jeunes garçons révèlent un vécu subjectif en partie conforme à la finalité instrumentale de l'emv (réactions d'ouverture et d'adhésion au droit), et en partie non conforme (réaction de méprise chez les mères et de peur chez les jeunes). De même, les entretiens réalisés auprès des intervenants révèlent une pensée motrice en partie conforme à la rationalité du droit souple (décision clinique et acceptation de l'autocontrôle requis) et en partie non conforme (attitude rétrospective semblable à celle d'un juge et refus de la finalité imposée par la Loi). Le tout illustre l'important potentiel d'efficacité de l'emv, en termes de protection concrète, mais montre aussi la grande difficulté de la tâche de l'intervenant et l'inadaptation de sa préparation cognitive. Certains d'entre eux refusent le nouveau mode d'action publique parce qu'ils n'en comprennent pas la rationalité. Dans l'approche des problèmes de l'adolescence, il en résulte souvent une prégnance des formes pénales et la survivance, dans l'imaginaire parental, d'une mesure de répression du mineur réfractaire à l'autorité parentale, comme c'était le cas dans l'Acte concernant les écoles d'industrie de 1869. / The Youth Protection Act states that protective measures may be imposed by a decision of the Youth Tribunal or, alternatively, determined through a voluntary measures agreement (vma) proposed by a youth protection case worker and accepted by the minor and his parents. The research bears on the second mode of law application. It draws up the framework of vma in legal theory and proposes a sociological observation of the practice of vma in cases of severe behavior problems (art. 38h) YP.A.). A scientific framework of vma requires interdisciplinarity. The conceptual origins of this alternative to adjudication must be found in external disciplines and then must be introduced in legal theory. The concept of vma cornes from two different scientific movements, the contractual approach in social work and the contractual governance in law. The latter inc1udes public law transaction, administrative contract and soft law. Both movements belong to a large theoretical wave, now invading the whole of human sciences, inc1uding among others transactional analysis in psychology and contract-based pedagogy. The concept of pedagogical contract identifies this large scientific movement. Although inherently modern, the movement represents a paradigm shift from the private law/public law distinction and requires the construction of the new concept of "normative authority", independent from that distinction, in order to define vma. The sociological research follows the principles of comprehensive interview such as formalized by Jean-Claude Kaufmann. Its goal is to study the effectivity of vma. Interviews with mothers and boys reveal a subjective life experience partially in line with the instrumental function of vma (reaction of open-mindedness and adherence to law), and partially not (reaction of misunderstanding amoung mothers and of fear amoung boys). In the same way, interviews with youth protection case workers reveal motives of action partially in line with the rationality of soft law (c1inical decision and acceptance of self-control), and partially not Gudge-like retrospective attitude and refusaI of the official purpose). Globally, the results show the important potential of effectiveness of vma in terms of concrete protection, but they also reveal the great difficulties of the decision-making job undertaken by the youth protection case workers and the inadequacy of their cognitive background. Sorne of them refuse the new administrative mode because they do not understand its rationality. Then, quite often, the treatment of teenager problems reveals the prevalence of a punitive rationality and the survival, in parental imagery, of the idea of a procedure whose purpose would be to repress a child's resistance to authority, as was the case with the Industrial Schools Act of 1869. / "Thèse présentée à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Docteur en droit (LL.D.)"

The thesis focused on how the advent of children's rights, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has impacted on the subject of juvenile justice and embarked on a practical examination of law reform in this regard in an African context. The focus was placed on a number of African countries that have embarked on or completed child law reform in the aftermath of ratification of the CRC. The case studies in this thesis were Ghana (1998-2003), Kenya (1993-2001), Namibia (1994 to date), Lesotho (2003 to date), South Africa (1997 to date) and Uganda (1992-1996).