Juvenile Justice Administration Research Articles

Examining the Benefits and Challenges of the Diversion Programme as a Mechanism to Enhancing Juvenile Justice Administration in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

This study is informed by goal number four, target one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), on the increase of accessible, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education by 2030. The intended outcome of this goal cannot be achieved in Tanzania when juveniles who fall in conflict with the law are left out of the mainstream of education. The study utilized a cross-sectional design, which embraces the qualitative approach. Its data were obtained through purposeful sampling techniques (convenient and snowballing sampling), in which twenty-eighty respondents participated. The data collection techniques used were in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The ATLAS.ti 9 software was employed during qualitative data analysis. The main findings reveal that the diversion programme effectively addresses juveniles' educational needs and mitigates associated stigma and retribution. Furthermore, it helps in amicably solving the juveniles' problem due to assessment of individual juveniles, generating suitable tailor-made interventions. Challenges obtained were that police officers still used much force during the arrest, and some would demand bribes; the traditional system was lengthy and cumbersome; there was a shortage of workforce and buildings; limited financial resources and equipment; and some juveniles and actors did not know the programme. The article concludes that the diversion programme is vital to achieving education for all as envisaged by the SDGs. It further recommends capacity building to all social actors on the importance of diversion, mobilization of resources, and researchers should be encouraged to conduct studies in JJA, in particular indigenous models and practice of the diversion programme.

Мера помещения несовершеннолетних наркозависимых в принудительные реабилитационные центры в законодательстве Вьетнама

In accordance with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (the Beijing Rules, 1985): "The placement of a juvenile in an institution shall always be a disposition of last resort and for the minimum necessary period". However, like many other countries of Southeast Asia, Vietnam maintains punishment in the form of imprisonment for minor offenders. Imprisonment of minors is currently playing an important role in the prevention of crime in Vietnam. Apart from imprisonment, the Vietnamese laws stipulate placement of minor drug addicts in rehabilitation centers for forced rehabilitation. This measure is applied to minor drug addicts not wishing to be treated for drug addiction to isolate them from the society for a period of 6 to 12 months. This article reviews the Vietnamese laws with regards to forced placement of minor drug addicts in rehabilitation centers, which serves as the measure of isolation of minor drug addicts from the society but does not require judicial proceedings.

The role of sport in juvenile justice: benefits according to key informants

There is a strong body of literature underscoring the potential of sport programs to contribute to broad health benefits and positive youth development (PYD) for young people. However, benefits are dependent on a variety of factors including the purpose, structure and setting of programs. Justice settings provide potentially critical spaces for realizing the benefits of sport, but barriers in access among justice-affiliated youth persist, and little is known about programs in this setting. This paper describes a qualitative study exploring juvenile justice administrators’ perceptions of programs in their facilities. We find that administrators believe their programs contribute to positive relationships and other important aspects of youth development. Further, programs provide opportunities to practice treatment skills and support re-entry. We conclude that while individual PYD features are reflected in administrators’ perceptions of sport, programs also served a broader role for families, facilities, and communities with implications for social justice through sport.

Justice for Children in Ghana: The Untold Dimension

Abstract Studies on criminal justice in Ghana have implicated the police in bribery, breach of trust, crime trade, and brutality, among others. This study departed from the approach of “perceived wrongs” cited against the police and examined the less untold challenges which militate against child-friendly policing in the country. A total of 160 police respondents were randomly selected from three police districts in the Northern Region of Ghana in a correlational study design. Administering a questionnaire was used as the primary data collection method. The study found that the police are constrained by inadequate cells for juveniles, inadequate serviceable vehicles, lack of remand homes for juveniles, lack of State-owned temporary shelters for victims of abuse and inadequate budgetary support for handling juvenile crimes. Using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance, with a 147.119 (df = 5) value for χ2, the asymptotic significance (p) was 0.000, signifying a significant agreement among police officers’ grading scores. Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W) figure was found to be 0.751, implying that 75.1% of the ranking scores given by police officers were in consonance with these challenges which have restrained them from any practical child-friendly policing and administration of juvenile justice in the study locality.

Life after detention: challenges encountered by released juvenile offenders in Accra, Ghana

This article explores the challenges encountered by released juvenile offenders in Accra, employing the qualitative research method, using the phenomenological approach. Twelve young male adults released from the senior correctional center in Accra took part in interviews which analyzed the Interpretative Phenomenological Approach. The findings of the study reveal that the participants encountered educational and employment challenges. Factors that fueled these challenges include the lack of financial resources and stigma. The lack of state support for the reintegration of released juvenile offenders was also another major contributing factor, the study identified. The findings of this study reveal the need for implementing the Justice for Children policy in Ghana. Context-related reintegration processes for children in conflict with the law suitable for the African and the Ghanaian terrain must be incorporated into the juvenile justice administration. This move is to ensure that released juvenile offenders are cared for. The findings further call for more research into reintegration programs fit for the African context and curated to meet the needs of these released juvenile offenders.

A Legal Assessment of the Protection of the Human Rights of Women and Children under the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Light of Some Selected Human Rights Instruments

The violations and abuses of the rights of women and children has been a source of global concern for decades. The United Nations (UN) has made several international efforts to protect the rights and freedoms of women and children starting with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHRs) by its General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948, which sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be internationally safeguarded. Other efforts which the UN has made to protect the rights of women include the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others 1949, Equal Remuneration Convention 1951, Convention on the Political Rights of Women 1952, Convention on the Nationality of Married Women 1957, Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 1958, Convention against Discrimination in Education 1960, Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages 1962, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) 1979. Similarly, efforts which the UN has made to protect the rights of children include the UN General Assembly Declaration of the Rights of the Child 1959, the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beijing Rules) 1985, the Declaration on Social and Legal Principles relating to the Protection and Welfare of Children 1986, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime 2003. However, despite these global efforts made by the UN to protect the rights of women and children, there still exist rampant cases of the violations of the rights of women and children globally. Therefore, the UN, in 2015, made further efforts to protect the rights of women and children through its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article, which adopted the doctrinal research methodology, assesses the protection of the human rights of women and children under the United Nations 2030 Agenda for SDGs in the light of some selected human rights instruments.

African Customary Dispute Resolution vs Alternative Dispute Resolution for Juvenile Crime in Ghana

Juvenile delinquency is a challenge for most African states, and Ghana is no exception. Recidivism, stigmatisation and victim dissatisfaction indicate that Ghana’s formal criminal justice system, with all its merits, has posed severe challenges to the administration of juvenile justice. This article examines the practice of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which utilises restorative conflict resolution processes in place of prosecution and sentencing in juvenile justice systems of various jurisdictions. Through processes such as victim-offender mediation, ADR invites full participation and consensus between victims, offenders and persons indirectly affected by the crime committed and seeks full and direct accountability. Some inadequacies of ADR principles and practices render it less relevant to the African context. The resultant lacuna can be filled with indigenous dispute resolution practices to combat crime and its repercussions, constituting the African Dispute Resolution (AfDR). The reliance on Ubuntu in South Africa's Child Justice Act and traditional justice system mechanisms in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to deal with the aftermath of genocides and wars are contemporary examples of AfDR. Ghana would need to rely on AfDR to complement its formal criminal justice system to alleviate juvenile delinquency.

Современное состояние практики применения уголовного наказания в виде лишения свободы на определенный срок в отношении несовершеннолетних

The article analyzes the criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment for a certain period in terms of its application to juveniles. The article considers the criminal, penal and criminological aspects, as well as the correlation of the procedure for applying the specified criminal punishment with the provisions of international standards in the administration of juvenile justice. The subject of the article is the statistical reporting of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Russian legislation, provisions of international regulatory legal acts, scientific literature on the stated topic. The purpose of the study is to comprehensively analyze punishment in the form of imprisonment for a certain period of time as a type of punishment applied to juveniles, to identify problems in the practice of its appointment and execution in relation to the designated category of persons, as well as to find possible ways of eliminating such problems. The methodological basis of the research was made up of statistical, comparative legal, systemic and structural methods, analysis, synthesis, induction and other general scientific methods. The author has investigated the essence and content of imprisonment, the procedure for its appointment to juveniles, analyzed the data of judicial statistics. On the basis of statistical data of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, the practice of organizing the execution of sentences in the form of imprisonment in relation to underage persons has been studied. A criminological personality study of a juvenile convicted to this type of criminal punishment, held in an educational colony, has been carried out. The main tendencies and peculiarities of appointing imprisonment for juveniles and the practice of its implementation are revealed, the effectiveness of this type of punishment for juveniles is assessed, the existing problems are formulated, and the author's ways of eliminating them are proposed. In conclusion, the author states that, in general, the practice of applying imprisonment to juveniles does not have critical problems and complies with the requirements of international normative legal acts. The main problem is the weak organization of post-penitentiary monitoring of minors who have served their imprisonment sentence. Key words: juvenile, imprisonment, educational colony, juvenile delinquent, juvenile delinquency, re-socialization.

Juvenile Justice Administrator Perspectives: Reframing Reentry Around Positive Youth Outcomes

This article draws on research, policy, legislation, and practice to provide strategies for addressing the reentry needs of youth in the juvenile justice system and reframing the way successful reentry outcomes are conceptualized. Achieving a systemic paradigm shift of this nature requires that researchers, policymakers, and juvenile justice administrators work together to facilitate change. The Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators is leading the combined effort to facilitate reform in this area. This article briefly discusses the state of the juvenile justice system, progress in the field, and remaining challenges facing administrators of juvenile justice facilities, within the context of a changing framework that focuses on a developmental approach to issues of delinquency and emphasizes positive youth outcomes as a more effective measure of reentry.

ВДОСКОНАЛЕННЯ СИСТЕМИ ВІДПРАВЛЕННЯ ПРАВОСУДДЯ ПО ВІДНОШЕННЮ ДО НЕПОВНОЛІТНІХ ЗА МІНІМАЛЬНИМИ СТАНДАРТНИМИ ПРАВИЛАМИ ООН («ПЕКІНСЬКІ ПРАВИЛА»)

The article analyzes the basic provisions of the United Nations Minimum Standard Rules on the Administration of Juvenile Justice (“Beijing Rules”) and responded to the worldwide trend of juvenile delinquency by scholars and practitioners from many countries around the world. These rules are designed to take into account the diversity of legal systems and the social development of states and should be the basis of national legislation in need of reform. In addition, the basic principles declared in the Beijing Rules should be reflected in the juvenile policy of the states.The legal analysis made it possible to highlight such important principles as ensuring the welfare of a minor and social justice; Reduction of interference by law and fair and humane treatment of a teenager in conflict with the law; the “ principle of proportionality” (limitation of punitive sanctions) and the individualizat ion of the responsibility of minors, taking into account the act committed; expedient use of measures of influence on minors, limited use of punishments, prohibition of the death penalty and corporal punishment, etc.It has been concluded that the improvement of the juvenile justice system under the Beijing Rules is primarily consistent with the general tendency to humanize the rights and protect the rights of children and adolescents, in particular those who are in conflict with the law. Their implementation into national law enables the development of juvenile policy of the state, the system of juvenile law and juvenile justice on the basis of modern international legal standards, which in turn should help to increase the effectiveness of legal influence and reduce the level of juvenile delinquency.

Marco internacional del derecho penal para menores de edad

Los elementos del Derecho Penal aplicado a los menores de edad acusados, investigados, procesados y sentenciados por la comisión de un delito, ámbito de aplicación subjetivo, adjetivo, proceso y medidas sancionadoras, varía de un país a otro, es por ello que la Organización de las Naciones Unidas, a través de las Reglas mínimas para la Administración de justicia de menores, la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño, las Directrices para la prevención de la delincuencia juvenil y las Reglas para la protección de menores privados de libertad ha establecido los principios mínimos, el Estado Mexicano desde la ratificación de la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño inició el camino hacia la protección de los Derechos Humanos de los menores de edad (adolescentes).

The CRC in South Africa 15 years on: does the new Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 comply with international children’s rights instruments?

Article 40 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child requires states parties to take appropriate measures to ensure that children accused of committing offences are treated in a manner that would ensure that their best interests are upheld. South Africa ratified the CRC in 1995, the provisions of which have influenced the children’s rights clause in its 1996 Constitution. Section 28(1)(g) of the Constitution stipulates that children may not be detained, except as a measure of last resort and, should they be detained, it should be for the shortest appropriate period of time. Section 28(1)(g) goes further to give domestic effect to the following guarantees stipulated in Article 40 of the CRC: (1) the right to be treated in a manner, and kept in conditions, that take account of the child’s age; and (2) to have a legal practitioner assigned to the child. Recently, SA has enacted its Child Justice Act 75 of 2008, which came into operation on 1 April 2010. The question to be covered in this article is whether this Act truly complies with the international standards set by the CRC (15 years after SA ratified it); the general comments by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and other non-binding, yet persuasive instruments like the Standard Minimum Rules on the Administration of Juvenile Justice and the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty. This article only examines four aspects of the Child Justice Act, being: criminal capacity; pretrial release and detention; diversion; and sentencing. It concludes that, but for a few technical aspects of the Child Justice Act, SA took significant steps to comply with its international obligations when it domesticated the CRC in relation to children who commit offences.

Juvenile Justice Administration in Nigeria and Contemporary International Standards

Juvenile Justice Administration in Nigeria and Contemporary International Standards Dr. Alfred Abhulimhen-Iyoha, Dr. M. O. Oseghale Abstract The age of Criminal responsibility in Nigeria is to protect the Rights of Children, in which case the Juvenile. There are other laws which deal with Juvenile administration in Nigeria, such as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the Penal Code Law, Criminal Code, the Children and Young Persons Law (applicable in the various states) the Child Rights Act, which have been domesticated by some states etc. However, the institutions involve in Juvenile administration like the Police, the Court, the Prisons are established for the purpose. But the question therefore is, whether these agencies have met the contemporary international standards in Juvenile administration in Nigeria. This is what this paper seeks to appraise and it was discovered that there are many manifest problems in all the stages of Juvenile administration. It concludes that it is in dire need for reforms in the institutions, adequate funding, capacity building of persons and their specialization in child centered skills. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jlcj.v8n1a10

Ages of Anxiety: Historical and Transnational Perspectives on Juvenile Justice ed. by William S. Bush and David S. Tanenhaus

Reviewed by: Ages of Anxiety: Historical and Transnational Perspectives on Juvenile Justice ed. by William S. Bush and David S. Tanenhaus Tera Eva Agyepong Ages of Anxiety: Historical and Transnational Perspectives on Juvenile Justice. Edited by William S. Bush and David S. Tanenhaus. New York: New York University Press, 2018. ix + 193. Cloth $49. Ages of Anxiety: Historical and Transnational Perspectives on Juvenile Justice is a critically important examination of international juvenile justice policy in the twentieth century. The contributing authors and editors have co-created a cutting-edge volume that surveys the emergence of juvenile justice and the transnational circulation of ideas surrounding delinquency. This six-chapter volume historicizes the middle decades of the twentieth century—a period that has been under-examined in juvenile justice scholarship. Each study highlights the important role that ordinary people and ideas have played in shaping juvenile justice, and the varied responses that modern, developing, and colonial regimes have had to delinquency. The first part of the book examines efforts that reformers and practitioners made to legitimize emergent juvenile justice systems in Belgium, Mexico, and colonial Zanzibar. The second part analyzes the varied approaches to policing and punishing youth crime in Boston, Paris, Montreal, and Turkey. David Niget highlights a transnational movement of ideas about juvenile courts among Belgian reformers, judges, and the International Association of Children's Judges (IACJ) by examining discourses that circulated internationally. Collectively, Belgian reformers, the IACJ, and other international congresses disseminated proposals for juvenile courts based on the "American" or "Chicago" model. This first chapter reveals the significant impact that the emergence of international human rights paradigms had on notions of juvenile justice in the aftermath of the world wars. In the second chapter, Shari Orisich's study of the transformation of Mexico City's juvenile court between the 1930s and 1960s similarly explores the impact of a transnational circulation of ideas. Orisich focuses on juvenile court workers' understanding and application of scientific ideas about delinquency and youth. The chapter contains rich analysis of estudio social (minors' case files that included reports by doctors, psychologists, caseworkers, and other state agents), revealing not only the impact that transnational ideas had on the ground, but the ways in which children themselves asserted agency over their own lives. Orisich's "reading against the grain" of the narratives in the children's case files brilliantly historicizes how [End Page 129] a new welfare state modernized authority on a "body of knowledge that was built on youth" (53). Corrie Decker's chapter on the limits of Western conceptions of juvenile justice in colonial Zanzibar concludes Part I of the text. British colonial administrators resisted calls from the Colonial Office, beginning in the 1930s, and from the United Nations in the 1950s, to follow international blueprints for the administration of juvenile justice. Decker reveals how masheha (local chiefs) and mudirs (Islamic legal representatives) resolved cases of juvenile delinquency before colonial administrators knew about them. As a result, local leaders diverted youth before they could encounter the colonial penal apparatus. Decker's study is an important reminder that the very notions of "delinquency" and "justice" have been culturally and historically contingent categories mediated by local actors even when they have purported to be "universal" and international" in their conception. Part II's examination of approaches to policing and punishing youth crime begins with Tamara Myers' chapter. Myers analyzes the Montreal Police Department's (MPD) approach to a juvenile crime wave that began—as it did in other large cites—in the postwar period. The MPD successfully reduced juvenile delinquency by creating delinquency prevention programs and reconceptualizing the role of police officers so that it emphasized mentorship rather than policing. The chapter is not only an important addition to historical scholarship and policy debates about juvenile justice because of its illumination of a locale where delinquency prevention strategies worked, but also because it highlights how important the construction of youth was to this history. As Myers notes, prevention work "necessitated the production of particular construction of youth—one that was deserving of protection" (96). In "Supervising Freedom: Juvenile Delinquency in Paris and Boston in the Mid-Twentieth Century," Guillaume Périssol's comparative study examines the...

THE SUBJECT OF CRIME: THE PROBLEM OF ESTABLISHING AGE LIMITS OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY

Purpose: This article presents the authors’ analysis of the problem of determining the subject of a crime as a legal concept, and defining the legal characteristics of a person who has committed a crime by features that are necessary for criminal responsibility (individual, age, and responsibility). Methodology: The present study was based on a dialectic approach to the disclosure of legal phenomena using general scientific and private scientific methods. Considered the Convention on Rights of the Child1989; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights "in 1966; and UN Standard Minimum Rules for Administration of Juvenile Justice. Result: It is noted that the theory of criminal law and criminal legislation of various legal systems, including Russia, associate criminal responsibility with the age of the subject of the crime. Based on the requirements of criminal law, the subject of a crime may not be any imputed person, but only having reached a certain age. Applications: This research can be used for universities and students in law. Novelty/Originality: In this research, the model of establishing age limits of criminal responsibility is presented in a comprehensive and complete manner.

Operationalizing intake: Variations in juvenile court intake procedures and their implications

Juvenile court intake – the process in which state or local authorities determine whether to prosecute, divert, or dismiss alleged juvenile delinquency cases – is essential to juvenile justice administration and to juvenile justice goals. Yet it is generally under-studied and the roles of prosecutors and intake officers poorly understood. This paper operationalizes juvenile court intake using data from one southeastern state, with a focus on professionals' roles and relative power. Results demonstrate within-state variation in intake structures and procedures with regard to whether prosecutors or intake officers exert the greatest control. Further, results show that there is a geographic relationship to this variation – counties with heavy prosecutorial control are represented disproportionately among urban areas. Additional qualitative data offers insight into prosecutors' and intake officers' perspectives on each other's roles in intake. Findings indicate a range of questions to be explored in future research examining whether and how different intake structures affect intake decisions.

Проблемні аспекти злочинності неповнолітніх

The purpose of the article is to analyze level, structure and dynamics of crimes committed by juveniles, as well as his or her sentencing and release from criminal liability, punishment or serve the sentence according to the results of judicial statistics of 2017-2018 years. Methodology. The methodological toolkit was chosen due to the set purpose, the specifics of the object and subject of the study. The following methods of cognition have been used: method of the systematic analysis of legal norms – to compare the rules for the release of juveniles from punishment and serve the sentence; for the systematization of the types of release of juveniles from punishment and serve the sentence; statistical – for the analysis of judicial statistics and other statistical information in order to substantiate certain conclusions. Scientific novelty is to improve the theoretical understanding of the content of the level, structure and dynamics of crimes committed by juveniles, and also general tendencies in sentencing and release from criminal liability, punishment or serve the sentence. Conclusions. According to the analysis of judicial statistics for 2017-2018, it was ascertained that in Ukraine, in the administration of juvenile justice, the recommendations set forth in international legal instruments applicable in the administration of juvenile justice in respect of the granting of benefits to such sanctions and measures that may have an educational effect, as well as to compensate for the damage caused by an offense committed by a minor, shall be taken into account

Translating research into practice: Designing effective reentry services for adolescent offenders

Abstract This article introduces the model design of a specialized juvenile reentry program that resulted in reducing recidivism to less than half the recidivism rate of those in the control group. The reentry program and evaluation was funded by the Second Chance Act and has been identified as a promising practice in reentry planning. The reentry project was a collaborative, region-wide effort involving juvenile justice administrators, law enforcement officials, treatment providers, and other community support partners. The intensity and type of reentry services provided were determined by the results of standard risk assessment and were delivered based upon a prescribed, dosage-based schema. Best practices in reentry planning are identified and the manner in which current best practices informed the model design is illustrated throughout the article. The article is intended for information dissemination and potential project replication.

A Critical Appraisal of the Juvenile Justice System under Cameroon's 2005 Criminal Procedure Code: Emerging Challenges

The objective of this article is to examine the changes introduced by the 2005 Cameroonian Criminal Procedure Code on matters of juvenile justice, considering that before this Code, juvenile justice in Cameroon was governed by extra-national laws. In undertaking this analysis, the article highlights the evolution of the administration of juvenile justice 50 years after independence of Cameroon. It also points out the various difficulties and shortcomings in the treatment of juvenile offenders in Cameroon since the enactment of the new Criminal Procedure Code. The article reveals that the 2005 Code is an amalgamation of all hitherto existing laws in the country that pertained to juvenile justice, and that despite the considerable amount of criticism it has received, the Code is clearly an improvement of the system of juvenile justice in Cameroon, since it represents a balance of the due process rights of young people, the protection of society and the special needs of young offenders. This is so because the drafters of the Code took a broad view of the old laws on juvenile justice. Also a wide range of groups were consulted, including criminal justice professionals, children’s service organisations, victims, parents, young offenders, educators, advocacy groups and social-policy analysts. However, to address the challenges that beset the juvenile justice system of Cameroon, the strategy of the government should be focussed on three areas: the prevention of youth crime, the provision of meaningful consequences for the actions of young people, and the rehabilitation and reintegration of young offenders. Cameroonian law should seek educative solutions rather than to impose prison sentences or other repressive measures on young offenders. Special courts to deal with young offenders should be established outside the regular penal system and should be provided with resources that are adequate for and appropriate to fostering their understanding of juvenile crime.

Criminal Justice System for Juveniles in Albania

The following paper deals with the application of the criminal procedural requirements concerning the protection of minors interests (aged 14-18 years) detained , arrested and sentenced to in our country, compared with international nregulations governing the treatment of this level of society when it is in conflict with criminal law. Measures and guarantees the state currently provides and those to be ensured in the future against vilification, harassment, discrimination, which should consider to be offered to all juveniles of deprived freedom, regardless the cause. From the beginning should be emphasized that any standard taking place in this sector should be seen derived from those set forth in international instruments, such as the Nations Convention on Children Rights of 1989 ; Standard Minimum Rules of the United Nations Administration of Juvenile Justice (the Beijing Rules) of 1985; Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles in prison in 1990 and Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (the Riyadh Guidelines), etc.One of the basic principles set forth by the aforementioned instruments, is that minors should be deprived of liberty except as a last resort and for the shortest time possible. How this basic principle has been applied in Albania in these 23 years of democracy? What should be done more, in this respect ? Is it the moment of the adoption of a comprehensive legal framework (code, law) specific for juveniles who are in conflict with criminal law, specifically governing the investigation, the judgment, treatment and rehabilitation of persons under investigation, accused of juvenile offenders?? By addressing and replyin to these issues by means of this article, I hope to give a modest assistance regarding the way such people should be protected and treated . DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4p436