Juvenile Offending is widely believed to be on the increase judging by the growing number of convictions of young offenders in Gauteng Province. Policy and legislation has been renewed to uphold the rights of the child and to provide more humane intervention plans for children in conflict with the law. Appropriate sentencing of young people in conflict with the law remains a significant challenge in the South African Criminal Justice System. The Probation Services Act (Act 116 of 1991) provides for the appointment of probation officers who are responsible for screening, assessing and referring persons awaiting trial. After young offenders are convicted of a crime, a probation officer is required to conduct a pre-sentence investigation and write a pre-sentence report to assist the Magistrates and Judges in making appropriate sentencing decisions. This study aims to assess the usefulness of probation officers / pre-sentence reports in sentencing decisions concerning young offenders in the Criminal Justice System. Probation services are overloaded and understaffed and many social workers have not had adequate training in working in this field. These factors may compromise the quality of the pre-sentence investigation and the consideration of sentencing options. The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of probation officers’ reports in sentencing young offenders in the Criminal Justice System. A representative sample of fifteen magistrates from Johannesburg Courts and the surrounding areas including a judge from the High Court was used for this study. The findings indicated that all the respondents were involved and experienced in sentencing young offenders. ii From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that most of the respondents found the probation officer’s reports useful in terms of the purpose of the pre-sentence investigations, understanding the young offender in his / her family, community and socio-economic and cultural context; the criminal history and profile of the young offender; the probation officer’s evaluation and assessment; and the consideration of appropriate sentencing options. With regard to suggestions to improve the probation officers’ reports the following was suggested by some of the respondents: - - Reports should be compiled and presented to court in time. - A workshop involving probation officers, prosecutors, magistrates and other service providers for young offenders needs to be done. - Probation officers should communicate with the prosecutors so that they get knowledge of the court proceedings regarding the trial. - Probation officers should look at the docket that carries the information regarding the young offender. - If a young offender is detained in a detention centre, probation officers should visit them frequently in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs they are exposed to, for sentencing purposes. The research design was qualitative in nature and an interview schedule was completed for the purpose of data collection. iii The results of this study indicated that the probation officer’s report is useful. The majority of the respondents stated that the probation officer’s report met their expectations. However, not all of them had suggestions regarding guidelines to improve pre-sentence reports, as the existing one covers all the necessary aspects. / Prof. L. Patel

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / Although deficits in object relations patterns have been identified in populations of violent offenders, few studies have examined the object relations of male juveniles incarcerated for violent crimes. The present study examined four dimensions of object relations, as measured by the Thematic Apperception Test and Westen's Social Cognitions and Object Relations Scale with a sample of eight male juvenile offenders incarcerated for violent crimes as De Novo and Eureka Youth Care Centres. These dimensions are complexity of object representations, affect tone of relationship paradigms, capacity for emotional investment in relationships and understanding of social causality. / South Africa

This thesis covers the topic of juvenile diversion with respect to keeping juveniles from progressing further into the justice system as well as keeping them out of prison. It deals with a number of areas. The first is diversion before an offence has been committed - prevention. Here a number of recommendations are made with respect to education of the child and the community in order to make prevention a priority when new diversion programmes are considered and introduced. The second area is that of diversion after the offence has taken place. This deals with diversion by the police at the moment of apprehension and recommends the introduction of cautions as a diversionary measure. The third aspect that is considered is diversion after the juvenile has been arrested and/or charged. The establishment of Reception and Assessment Centres and the setting up of Family Group Conferences are especially highlighted. The detention of the child until his/her trial is also investigated and it is concluded that this is an unnecessary measure except in extreme circumstances. The progression of the child's case to court is the fifth area considered. Here, recommendations are made as to the necessity for the proper training of court personnel and the need for the introduction of court imposed diversionary programmes before sentencing. With respect to diversion after the child has been found guilty, a number of suggestions are made as to the introduction of new sentencing options and new or improved institutions. Finally, recent reforms are discussed. The conclusion reached is that juveniles should not be imprisoned except in the most extreme cases, and that diversion programmes should be instituted as soon as possible as the basis of SouthAfrica's juvenile justice system. It is deemed essential that diversion begins with prevention and continues until sentencing is completed, and that all children are diverted unless this is not possible.

In an attempt to look at the question of juvenile delinquency, an exploratory and descriptive study was undertaken to examine the relationship between selected social factors and the disposition by the court of the cases of female juveniles in the province of British Columbia. The study population consisted of 499 cases which appeared before the British Columbia courts in the year of 1966. This figure includes all female juvenile offenders with the exception of Vancouver where a sample population was selected. Data was collected from the Dominion Bureau of Vital Statistics, Form 3, 1966, coded and computerized in an attempt to correlate specific variables. The resulting univariate and bivariate tables were examined and certain conclusions were drawn. An important factor which must be taken into account, along with other difficulties, in considering such conclusions, was the inadequacy of available statistical data. Despite these limitations, it was found: that generally the disposition was appropriate to the offense; that older offenders were more frequently fined or required to make restitution; that the majority of fathers' occupations tended to fall into the lower socio-economic strata; and that dispositions involving loss of liberty were more likely to be imposed on children whose fathers were in the lower strata. Of interest were the findings which indicated that some current and popular assumptions regarding causative factors in juvenile delinquency were not supported by this study. With full knowledge that the hypothesis has not been conclusively proven, we hope that the merits of this study will encourage others, interested in this field or juvenile delinquency, to expand on the framework provided herein. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This thesis examined differences in reasoning concerning hypothetical versus real-life moral situations in order to better understand the moral development of delinquents in general, and psychopaths in particular. Participants ranged in age from 15 to 18 years and were divided into three subgroups: 14 psychopaths, 15 delinquents, and 15 normal youths (total N = 44). All subjects were individually interviewed and assessed on (a) Hare's (1985) psychopathy checklist, (b) two of Kohlberg's hypothetical moral dilemmas, and (c) a subject-generated real-life moral dilemma. Reasoning regarding these dilemmas was scored for both moral stage and moral orientation. It was found that the normal youths attained a higher level of moral reasoning than both the delinquents and psychopaths. Secondly, it was found that all groups scored lower on the real-life than the hypothetical dilemmas, indicating that hypothetical dilemmas may elicit a person's best level of reasoning, whereas real-life dilemmas may entail factors which lower the level of moral reasoning used in an actual situation of moral conflict. Third, non-incarcerated subjects were found to use more of the perfectionism and fairness orientations (Subtype B) than did the incarcerated. It was also found that psychopaths used more of the egoistic utilitarianism orientation than did non-psychopaths when discussing real-life dilemmas. That is, they focused more on issues related to themselves than did either the delinquents or the normals. Thus, this study reveals a pattern of deficiencies in the moral reasoning development of psychopaths and delinquents when compared to their normal counterparts. As well, hypothetical and real-life dilemmas were found to differ in the level of moral reasoning that they elicited. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Juvenile delinquency is a prevalent problem in many communities. Social learning theory suggests that delinquent behavior results from inadequate learning experiences, negative parent and peer models, and peer reinforcement for aggressive and other delinquent behavior. Since youths are often confronted with strong negative influences (parents, peers), the study and promotion of social skills training programs which provide youths with constructive tools for handling difficult situations seems of great importance. To enhance generalization of social skill training with delinquents, the effect of positive peer influence on these youths also seems worthy of examination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a social skills, problem solving training program for juvenile delinquents at the California Youth Authority. Also the relative efficacy of peer trainers as compared to adult trainers was examined. Lastly, the generalization of social skills to control delinquents exposed to treatment delinquents was assessed. Youths were divided into groups with peer trainers, adult trainers, and no trainer (control groups). Treatment groups received six training sessions, each being a different social skill or problem solving strategy.

Bibliography: pages 92-98. / Using a systems theoretical orientation the objective of this study was to implement a strategic approach for psychotherapeutic intervention with six male institutionalized white adolescents at a local custodial school. It was hypothesized that a strategic approach would control absconding for the duration of the investigation. Surveys of the literature were undertaken to provide the background to psychotherapeutic intervention with adolescents in custodial institutions, strategic psychotherapy and absconding. Absconding was selected as the condition for evaluating the interventions because it was an unambiguous indicator of school-based recidivism, viz., the adolescent was either on the property or he was not. The study was structured as a design-and-demonstrate investigation. Audiotape recordings were made during the sessions. Transcriptions of characteristic procedures and sequences of the strategic approach to psychotherapeutic intervention were presented, inter alia, paradoxes, reframing, metaphors, rituals, the declaration of therapeutic impotence. Evaluation of the interventions was based on follow-up interviews with the subjects and a qualitative analysis of risk of absconding aver the course of the intervention process. At the end of the investigation there was some evidence which suggested that five out of the six subjects were not as committed to absconding as they had claimed to be at the beginning of the study. The design of the study did not allow for the conclusion that the strategic approach for controlling absconding was of greater merit than any other form of intervention or no intervention at all. It was noted, however, that twelve of the eighteen potential subjects for the study indicated that they would abscond as soon as the opportunity arose. Therefore it was recommended that the issue of absconding be given priority in therapy on the admission of each new pupil. Given a strategic approach to addressing the issue of absconding in therapy, attention was drawn to a major aim of this type of intervention, viz., to generate a sense of personal autonomy. Hence a further recommendation was that once a pupil had made a commitment not to abscond, his sense of autonomy would need to be supported by an expeditious transfer to one of the more open hostels.

It was the purpose of this study to make application of Carl H. Rogers' non-directive method of psychotherapy in the treatment of juvenile delinquents. The study was set up in an effort to determine the value of such a treatment procedure as one method of treating this type of individual. The hypothesis to be tested was that non-directive psychotherapy would improve the personal and social adjustment of institutionalized delinquents. Supporting this general assumption the following three corollaries were assumed: (1) that improved personal adjustment would be reflected in adjustment inventories, (2) that improved social behavior would be reflected in social behavior rating scales, and (3) that the therapeutic objectives of interviews with each subject. The general hypothesis is supported to the extent that the results support each of the corollaries. In proceding toward an experimental test of the hypotheses, testing devices were selected for the purpose of detecting and measuring imporvement that may occur in the individual during the counseling process. The means used and described in the study for this purpose are (1) expressions of the subjects, (2) the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, (3) the California Test of Personality, (4) the Haggerty-Olson-Wickman Behavior Rating Schedules. Statements made by each subject were presumed to be indicative of better adjustment when they were presumed to be indicative of better adjustment when they were of such a nature as to imply that the therapeutic objectives had been attained. The three other measuring instruments were administered to the eleven experimental subjects before, and after the counseling interviews. A comparison of the pre-test and end-test scores, was presumed to indicate the improved adjustment of the subject while the interviewing was in progress. Any improvement that might be measured by this procedure, however, may be thought of as having occurred, not only from the influence of non-directive counseling, but possibly from other sources.

The purpose of the project is to establish a data gathering system that will provide decision makers an information base on which to 1) Plan for current program maintenance, 2) Plan for program change and 3) Identify changes in student need as a basis for future Title I funding. In establishing the system, two requirements had to be met. First, the system had to be simple so a person with limited training could operate it. Second, the system had to keep individual students identifiable to facilitate treatment and academic program planning. Developing the system within these constraints required the data system to address such questions as 1) Who are the programs reaching and how often, 2) What and how much are the students doing in the programs and 3) What and how much are they learning from the program. The system is organized in three parts, each one providing graphic or tabulated data for analysis by Title I administrators, evaluators and planners. The purpose of Part I is to identity which students are participating in Title I programs. This part attempts to determine: 1) The total amount of attendance by each student in all Title I programs. 2) The frequency of attendance of all students in each Title I program. 3) The frequency of attendance of each student in each Title I program. The purpose of Part II is to identify what students are doing in the program. Participants are: 1) Identified in terms of total amount of participation by all students in each program. 2) Identified in terms of individual participation in the Pre-School program. The purpose of the third part of the system is to identify what students are learning in the programs. The means used to Measure student gains vary with each program. The four categories these means fall into are: 1) Graphs of academic test scores. 2) Graphs of performance test results. 3) Tabulations of the number of defined program activities successfully performed. 4) Subjective evaluative statements