Many children in conflict with the law are not receiving the relevant education and services to which they are entitled. Convention on the Rights of the Child, proclaim that the convicted child‟s needs of persons of their age, like the right to appropriate education must be addressed as a matter of urgency. In addition, there is a serious lack of properly trained personnel who might be causing more impairment to children in conflict with the law, but who remain in the system. The appointment of relevant and appropriate staff in correctional facilities is definitely required. For instance, many young offenders lacked a decent education, social skills and occupational skills and involvement of parents, peers and the community. If essential programmes become successful, this will not only improve the livelihood of children in conflict with the law, but will also reduce recidivism rates. Qualified teachers and caregivers are required because the children in conflict with the law require specialised programmes like Individual Education Plan (IEP). The IEP is a basic aspect in providing quality special education services to help a particular learner attain his or her maximum learning potential. The aim of this study was to develop socio-ecological framework in understanding and giving support to children in conflict with the law. Bronfenbrenner‟s ecological model was used as a conceptual framework. Qualitative research design and phenomenology as a mode of enquiry were employed in this study. Interpretivism was used a philosophical paradigm. Population was learners, between ages of eleven and seventeen, from three correctional facilities. Purposive sampling was used as a method of sample selection. The findings in this study indicated that the children in conflict with the law resented the teachers showing signs of being judgemental, for failing to acknowledge their efforts and for being unresponsive to their needs. Initial desires to succeed in the classroom were replaced by frustration, anger, hopelessness and disappointment following failure. Many of their acting out behaviours were an expression of this anger and disappointment. / Inclusive Education / D. Ed. (Inclusive Education)

M.A. / The institutionalisation and rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents has always been a contentious issue, generating much research and differences in opinions. What to do with youngsters who are too young to be criminals and too violent to be youth, remains a complex dilemma in a society where the incidence of juvenile delinquency is increasing by the day. The South African phenomenon of a marginalised generation who readily takes part in criminal behaviour, necessitated the development of a co-ordinated strategy involving formal and informal support groups in the training and development of this group. The establishment of e ,e first Youth Development Centre in Newcastle, named Ekuseni, was initiat ,* by President Nelson Mandela, in response to his concern that the conditions in South African jails are not conducive to transforming and developing young prisoners. The Ekuseni project was aimed at providing young convicted persons with appropriate life skills, education and training, to enable them to pa cipate fully in society. The aim of this study was to develop a psycho-educational programme to facilitate leadership competencies in young prisoners. The leadership programme constitutes one of the development programmes in the holistic rehabilitation model, developed specifically for the Ekuseni project by the Rand Afrikaans University. The leadership programme is aimed at developing various leadership competencies, grounded in leadership competency theory. The competencies included in this study were more specifically based on the research and the development of a unique leadership model for the South African organisational context by Charlton (1993). These concepts were adapted and integrated with theory on juvenile delinquency to develop a leadership program= suitable for South African youth in prison. The first step in the programme was to help students to create a vision for themselves and for the Ekuseni Youth Development Centre, and to take responsibility for attaining that vision. This included a shift from an external to an internal locus of control. Through learned communication skills, e competency to communicate this vision to other prisoners, to enlist them in dedicated action towards a constructive future, was facilitated. The development of conflict management skills as an essential competency for leaders in a youth prison, were facilitated in order for leaders to constructively resolve conflict between prisoners and staff, as well as between prisoners themselves. This is especially necessary in conflict between youth gangs in prison. Trust, earned by leaders through reliable and consistent behaviour is a fourth competency facilitated through IP is programme. Students were taught the art of interpersonal trust, which in turn enabled them to help others and empower themselves. The evaluation of the effectiveness of this programme did not fall nV in the parameters of this study. It is therefore recommended that this study be evaluated in future, before it is implemented in other youth prisons in South Africa.

M.A. / The young offender's criminal behaviour exerts enormous damage to the social and economical aspects of the country. Exploring the identity construction of young offenders, the decisions and choices they make in breaking into strangers' houses, stealing and hijacking other people's cars, is the focus of this study. Attention will also be focused on exploring how the criminal "career" affects and is affected by their identity construction. It is also the purpose of this study to explore what could be attracting the young offender to embark on a criminal expedition, in spite of the consequences of such activities, which appear to be uninviting and uncomfortable. The study comes about as a result of the misery and 6 trauma experienced by victims of the young offender's criminal activities (Clifford, 1974). People spend a lot of money improving the security systems in their properties with the purpose of barring the offenders from entering their premises, or taking the cars away from them. This, however, does not seem to work most of the time as it has in some cases contributed to the offenders also improving their skills on how to commit crime. There is increased surveillance in department stores, insurance premiums are high and there is an increase in the cost of goods and services. It seems that as crime escalates, more young people are sent to prison. Society also feels that prison is the best option for the young offender. Others would like the death sentence to be imposed to deal with the crime problem. At the moment, prisons are overcrowded with young people, who will be released in a few years' time. The question is whether, at the time of their release will they be able to be reintegrated back to society. What kind of people are we expecting them to be when they become adults? What role will they play in the functioning of the community? Probably the community needs to be informed about what happens in prison, for there is a general assumption that prison is a rehabilitative institution. It is seen as a place where we get rid of troublemakers, who on their release have become good citizens with a brighter future. People perceive a prison as a place that rehabilitates offenders and helps reintegrate them back into society. Whether the prison pursues and achieves this purpose needs to be seen. However, the high rate of recidivism leaves much to be desired. Cronje'et al. (1976) in their study found that a large number of young offenders became recidivists or recidivism can be traced back to juvenile offences

Doctor Educationis / The primary task of this thesis is to explain the establishment of the 'correctional institution', the Ottery School of Industrues, in Cape Town in 1948 and the programmes of rehabilitation, correctional and vocational training and residential care that the institution developed in the period until 1968. This explanation is located in the wider context of debates about welfare and penal policy in South africa. The overall purpose is to show how modernist discourses in relation to social welfare, delinquency and education came to South Africa and was mediated through a racial lens unique to this country. In doing so the thesis uses a broad range of material and levels from the ethnographic to the documentary and historical. The work seeks to locate itself at the intersection of the fields of education, history, welfare, penalty and race in South Africa. / South Africa

The aim of this study is to explore the experiences and evaluations of young male offenders who were diverted to family group conferencing in order to improve current services. An exploratory research design was chosen to obtain an understanding of what these young male offenders experienced during their conferencing and also to seek out their recommendations for future improvement of the family group conferencing diversion programme. This study comprised two samples which were purposively selected. The first sample was made up of ten young male offenders and the second sample comprised of the parents and /or guardians of the young male offenders. The data was collected using structured interview schedules. The data was collected on separate occasions for the two samples. Each interview lasted about 30- 40 minutes each. The findings of this study showed that there is still a need to train probation officers on appropriate implementation of family group conferencing and that families also have a role to play towards succefull implementation of diversion programmes. It is evident from the findings that young offenders need their families to support and care for them during difficult situations, as purported by the systems theory whereby society is regarded as a system with different parts and families are an important part of this system. Young offenders belong to families and families are part of communities and society. It is also important to note that victims are part of families, thus also part of society and the system. Family group conferencing provide an opportunity for all these parts to meet in a mediated environment to address the harm caused and make amends. The findings of this study also showed that there is a need to educate the general public about child justice legislation and the emerging trends in the field of child justice including diversion programmes.

This dissertation examines the role gender plays in predicting referral beyond juvenile court intake. Using referral data from Texas for 1999-2003, multinomial logistic regression is used to examine case processing decisions. Males were found to be more likely than females to be processed beyond intake for both status and delinquent offenses. Legal variables were found to influence processing decisions for delinquent offenses more than non-legal variables. In contrast, non-legal variables were found to influence processing decisions more than legal variables for status offenses. Finally, overall, minority females were not found to be more likely to be processed beyond intake than white females. Further research is needed to determine if the same finding is true for males.

The present study focused on male incarcerated youth, ages ranging from twelve to eighteen, in a twenty-four hour care treatment facility. The study attempted to determine what historical factors such as types of crimes committed, length of criminal history, and gang involvement are behavioral indicators of the type of youth who resist treatment. For the study, run away behavior indicated the youth was resistant to treatment.

The purpose of this study is to determine how the lack of social support can contribute to the recidivism rate of youthful offenders once they are released back into the community.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the problem with individuals in a criminal lifestyle is represented in municipal policy documents regarding the work with this group. The work with delinquents on a municipal level takes place in so-called ’defector services’. To examine what problems and assumptions lie behind these policies, we apply Carol Bacchis social constructionist WPR approach and her set of questions that target such aspects in the policies. Our analysis shows that the problem is represented to lie with the individuals, parental deficiencies, children’s schooling and preventive work. These problems are based on assumptions about dichotomies between unlawful/law-abiding citizens, passive/activesubjects, and the bad/good society. We link this to research regarding risk factors showing that juveniles lack judging capacity, leading to risktaking and criminal behaviour. This type of research appears to strongly impact the policies under study, which tend to prioritise juvenile delinquents, while deprioritizing adult delinquents. Bacchi suggests that all problem representations have material effects. We suggest that prioritising adult delinquents would have positive effects on both an individual and structural level and that moving the defector service for adult delinquents to the local level would allow for easier access.

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