Juvenile Justice

Restorative practices, especially conferencing, are being used to divert juvenile offenders from court processes.

Klosky, Tricia and Kethineni, Sesha. "Juvenile Justice and Due Process Rights of Children in India and the United States"

This article offers a cross-cultural comparison of current and past juvenile court systems in India and the United States. Issues such as juvenile court development, differences and similarities in juvenile court philosophies, and the impact of legislative reforms are explored within political, social, and legal contexts. Specifically, the juvenile justice system in India is examined and analyzed within the context of how changes in philosophy and terminology have affected juvenile court practices and procedures. Our conclusion is that in both countries the juvenile justice system often fails to achieve the rehabilitative agendas set forth by their legislative and child welfare bodies.

Morris, Allison and Maxwell, Gabrielle and Hayes, Hennessey. Conferencing and Restorative Justice

Family group conferences in the New Zealand youth justice system have been the centre of international interest since they were introduced there in 1989, and they have since been imitated by a number of countries. Enabling legislation for juvenile offenders has been passed in New Zealand, Australia, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, and Singapore. Also in New Zealand, legislation has been passed for adult offenders. Various versions of conferencing for young offenders have been introduced in Belgium, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States. More recently, new initiatives have been taken to introduce restorative conferencing in Brazil and Argentina for both adults and young people. In this chapter, we describe restorative justice conferencing for juveniles with a particular emphasis on New Zealand and Australia and assess the extent to which it can be said to reflect restorative justice processes and to result in restorative justice outcomes using research chiefly drawn from Australasia and North America. In addition, we examine data on the extent to which conferencing can reduce re-offending. But first, we discuss the development of restorative justice conferencing. (excerpt)

Wing Lo, T and Wong, Dennis and Maxwell, Gabrielle. Diversion From Youth Courts in Five Asia Pacific Jurisdictions: Welfare or Restorative Solutions

This article examines how juvenile offenders are diverted from prosecution in juvenile courts in five Asia Pacific jurisdictions: Queensland, Australia; New Zealand; Hong Kong; Singapore; and China. In all of these jurisdictions, there has been a trend away from punitive and retributive approaches to the diversion of juvenile offenders from prosecution in a court to the community-based welfare model and the restorative model. The community-based welfare model relies primarily on counseling, community support, and educational assistance and is usually led by professionals. This model tends to categorize juvenile offenders as having problem behaviors and emotional conditions that require treatment and supervision. The restorative model emphasizes the accountability of juvenile offenders for the harms their behavior caused and uses negotiation among the youth, their victims, and the youth's family to develop measures for repairing the harm done and addressing the youth's behaviors that caused the harm. This model limits the involvement of professionals in decisionmaking about the disposition of the case. New Zealand and Queensland use the restorative model. Criticisms of this model have included the lack of due process and protections for the rights of offenders, as well as the potential for undue influence by the police. Hong Kong and Singapore have adopted a traditional rehabilitation and welfare orientation whereby police divert juveniles from the courts through police cautions and referrals to community support and guidance services operated by social workers. In China, community-based practices such as police cautions, mediation, and educational assistance are used in diverting youth from court-based processing. Community-based sanctions are particularly susceptible to the influence of personal power and persuasion, and outcomes may favor those who have close affiliations with or hold powerful positions in the government. Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov.

Wong, Dennis S. W.. Juvenile crime and responses to delinquency in Hong Kong

This article describes the juvenile crime trend and responses to juvenile delinquency in Hong Kong since the 1970s. It explores how changing conceptions of the causes of juvenile crime have influenced delinquency control policies. Although Hong Kong has a relatively low crime rate, the heavy emphasis on the use of custodial programs over community-based programs is obvious. Whereas the scope of delinquency literature is narrow and the legal professional’s opinion is rather conservative, new initiatives to further advance the juvenile justice system are difficult. Author's abstract.

Gray, Patricia. Community corrections and the experiences of young male offenders in the Hong Kong youth justice system

In this article, Gray compares and contrasts England and Hong Kong in terms of "deinstitutionalization" and "decarceration" in youth justice policies. Because of legal changes, the number of juvenile offenders sentenced to custody fell noticeably in England in the 1980s and early 1990s. In contrast, and despite the influence of English legislation and policies, large numbers of juvenile and young adult male offenders continue to be placed in residential and custodial institutions in Hong Kong. To explore this situation, Gray looks at the following subjects: deinstitutionalization, decarceration, and the collapse of the rehabilitative ideal in the West; the concept of rehabilitation in Hong Kong; prospects for a developmental approach to youth justice in Hong Kong; and possible paths to community-based rehabilitation programs within the cultural context of Hong Kong.

Mok, Louis W.Y. and Wong, Dennis S. W.. Restorative Justice and Practices in China.

Restorative justice is developing robustly within the criminal justice system particularly in the field of juvenile justice. With the efforts devoted to policy development and intervention practices, activities at government and community levels suggest that restorative justice is emerging as an increasingly important element in mainstream criminal justice. Though restorative justice initiatives are one of the new initiatives for dealing with offending in many western countries, there has been relatively little experience of actual use of restorative practices in controlling juvenile offending and criminal justice intervention in China. In this paper, we first describe key themes of restorative justice and practices. We then highlight how restorative justice and practices been operated in the present juvenile justice in China. Finally we discuss the way ahead for the development of restorative justice. (Excerpt).

New Juvenile Justice Law in the Philippines

With the signing of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act 2006 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Philippines introduced a new juvenile justice system. Among the many provisions seeking to protect children in conflict with the law, the legislation calls for restorative justice to be an integral part of the new system.

Restorative Justice in Thailand: Lessons Learned

The Thai government began experimenting with restorative practices in 2003 with the implementation of family group conferences for juvenile offenders. In 2004, the probation services began a pilot project using restorative justice in 11 probation offices. Angkana Boonsit from the Thai probation Department shares her experiences and lessons learned in implementing restorative justice in Thai cultural setting. This speech was originally given at the at the ‘Restorative Justice in Emerging Countries’ ancillary session at the 11th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

Responding to Juvenile Crime in Thailand

Families and victims to get their say and Families are to get rehab role are two headlines appearing in the Bangkok Post in June. The articles refer to an announcement by the Juvenile Observation and Protection Department of its plans to institute family group conferencing with juvenile offenders beginning July 1. The Department hopes to lower the number of juveniles held in detention centres through this programme.

Developing Holistic Approaches in Singapore.

Joseph Ozawa is the Senior Director of the Family and Juvenile Justice Centre (FJJC) of the Subordinate Courts of Singapore. He is active in FJJC’s development of restorative and holistic practices. In this article, he describes three programs now in use in Singapore and relates how the format is important in the Asian context.

Japan and Restorative Practices

The emphasis on apology and forgiveness in Japanese society has led many commentators, such as John O. Haley, to point to Japan as an example of how restorative justice can affect crime and society. Despite this prominence of apology and forgiveness in explaining lower crime rates in Japan, these mechanisms have remained informal and tend to be offender focused. Recent activities seek to change this reality.