Development Of Juvenile Justice Research Articles

Current Trends in the Development of Juvenile Justice in Kyrgyzstan

The article attempts to reflect the problematic aspects of the current trends in the development of juvenile justice in the Kyrgyz Republic in the context of the adoption of the Children's Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. The authors set the task to conduct a content analysis of the positions of scientists of the CIS countries on issues of differentiation of the criminal process; to reflect the basic principles of juvenile justice in the CIS countries, including Kyrgyzstan; to conduct an analysis of the adopted Children's Code related to juvenile justice issues. In general, the article conducts a comprehensive study of theoretical and applied problems in the differentiation of the criminal procedure for juvenile delinquency in the context of reforming the Criminal Procedure Code in the CIS countries in general and in Kyrgyzstan in particular. The problems connected with the development of the criminal procedural form of the juvenile proceedings are raised. Based on the comparative legal analysis of the development of the institute of juvenile justice in the CIS countries, theoretical positions on the improvement of this institution in Kyrgyzstan are developed. The study reflects the existing shortcomings of the current legislation that hinder the development of juvenile justice in the Kyrgyz Republic, and formulates recommendations for the improvement of the Children's Code in order to achieve the goal set by its developers.

Blended Sentencing Laws and the Punitive Turn in Juvenile Justice

In many states, young people today can receive a “blended” combination of both a juvenile sanction and an adult criminal sentence. We ask what accounts for the rise of blended sentencing in juvenile justice and whether this trend parallels crime control developments in the adult criminal justice system. We use event history analysis to model state adoption of blended sentencing laws from 1985 to 2008, examining the relative influence of social, political, administrative, and economic factors. We find that states with high unemployment, greater prosecutorial discretion, and disproportionate rates of African American incarceration are most likely to pass blended sentencing provisions. This suggests that the turn toward blended sentencing largely parallels the punitive turn in adult sentencing and corrections—and that theory and research on adult punishment productively extends to developments in juvenile justice.

Networks, Lobbies and Pressures: Children's Aid Societies and the Adoption of the Canadian Juvenile Delinquents Act of 1908

The Juvenile Delinquents Act of 1908 laid the foundations for the development of juvenile justice in Canada at the same time as similar laws were passed in other European nations and American states. It was adopted by Parliament in spite of opposition from the Justice Minister. Its content reflected the fact that it was conceived and processed through Parliament under the initiative of children's aid societies that wanted to extend to juvenile delinquents protective interventions that had been developed for children in danger. This paper shows how one man who was part of several networks successfully used his associations with children's aid societies, the American child saving movement and Canadian political circles to play a key role in the adoption of the act.

Juvenile Justice: A Vision for the Millennium

This paper reviews the historical development of juvenile justice, provides critical analysis of the governmental perspective, identifies current and prospective programme models and examines trends that will shape juvenile justice in the 21st century. These trends include changing demographics, escalating perceptions of adolescent violence, increasing public frustration with crime and evolving conservative and punitive philosophies towards problem youth. International comparative data is also included. This paper was orginally presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, March 1998, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Delinquency Control and Juvenile Justice in China

This paper provides an overview of the recent developments in juvenile justice in China. With the improvement in the overall economy, there has been a genuine rise in delinquency. This paper describes the trend of youth crimes, and how informal grassroots networks and formal correctional institutions play their roles in delinquency control. The author argues that the inseparable relationship between the Communist Party and control systems, the frequent turnover of volunteers, and insufficient professional manpower hinder the development of a fair and independent juvenile justice system. Finally, the paper highlights what should be preliminary direction for the further development of the systems of delinquency control and juvenile justice.

Culturally Specific Causes of Delinquency: Implications for Juvenile Justice in Hong Kong

Based on the findings of Western researchers and the author's own social work experience, an integrated interactional model is constructed to identify the culturally specific causes of delinquency in Hong Kong. The results of 33 in-depth interviews with delinquents and non-delinquents suggest that reintegrative shaming practices, spirit of brotherhood, and an interdependent social environment are crucial factors pulling or pushing youngsters to or from delinquency. Appropriate ways to reintegrate offenders into society in a Chinese cultural context are discussed. The author advocates a “restorative justice approach” for the better development of juvenile justice in Hong Kong.

When Children Kill Children

In recent years a number of cases involving the murder of children by children have been reported in different countries. Key issues posed by such cases, especially the Bulger case in England and the Redergard case in Norway, are examined critically in the light of current European developments in juvenile justice. In particular, key concerns about the pursuit of justice for children are addressed and the relevance of these for our understanding of childhood and the relationship between children, families and the state considered. The Bulger case and others are identified as atypical and do not present an appropriate basis for change in criminal justice systems. Such cases, though, crystallize the way in which changing notions of childhood, and the competencies and abilities of children, articulate with change in major institutions such as criminal justice systems and the structural relationships between children and adults.

Developments in juvenile justice during the decade of the 70s: Juvenile detention facilities

A number of important developments in juvenile justice during the decade of the 70s are identified. Data were obtained from a sample of juvenile detention facilities in the late 1960s and again, from the same sample, in the late 1970s. The data obtained included the perceived purpose of detention, information concerning the detainees and personnel, and procedural and program information. The two sets of data were compared to determine whether the developments in the juvenile justice system were reflected in the detention segment of the system.

The Future of Juvenile Justice Policy and Research

One of the most striking developments in juvenile justice over the past twenty years has been the increasing rapidity and the widening scope of change in theories, goals, and knowledge about delinquency and its prevention or control. Many competing biological, psychological, social, and cultural theories of delinquency have emerged in the last two decades, yet none is sufficient to account for the rate and forms of delinquency today.

On the State and Fate of Status Offenders

The handling of status offenders is reviewed in the context of the historical development of juvenile justice in this country. Discrepancies between the legal code and the actual practice are noted and discussed in the light of present tendencies and likely developments concerning status offenders. On the basis of a nationally representative sample of 1467 juvenile offenders a procedure is developed to estimate the actual number of status offenders committed to public correctional facilities in the nation as a whole and in the 48 contiguous states. These estimates are correlated with a battery of socio-demographic factors. The analysis suggests that the phenomenon of status offenders is mainly a problem of the modern way of life characterized by urbanization, industrialization, and affluence. Some policy recommendations are the natural result of the present analysis. The noble intention of the justice system to exempt minors from the full force of criminal law ironically has resulted in one of the worst legal situations on record (Platt, 1969; Mattick and Aikman, 1969; Sarri, 1974). In 1899 Illinois became the first state to enact a juvenile court act, and within thirty years all but two states had followed suit by drafting special juvenile statutes designed to eliminate formal procedures and stigmatizing labels for minors and to emphasize individual treatment on the basis of parens patriae ideologies. Since the juvenile justice system was intended strictly for the protection and well-being of the youth, neither procedural guidelines nor jurisdictional boundaries were thought necessary for inclusion in juvenile statutes (Levin and Sarri, 1974). The lack of such regulations as well as extensive misconceptions of the goals of the reformers have resulted in a most tragic overreach by the juvenile justice system: the presumed or actual possession of jurisdiction over status offenders (Lemert, 1970). A status offender is commonly defined as a minor who engages in conduct which would not result in a criminal charge if committed by an adult. Typical examples of such conduct are “truancy”, “running away”, “using profanity”, “growing up in idleness”, and “incorrigibility”. These examples make clear that status offenses refer to both violation of specific ordinances and to general character or personality shortcomings and disorders. The indiscriminate handling of status offenders thus not only offends our sense of justice but also invites serious questioning of the efficacy of the present approach to cope with status offenders. In short, an institution designed to protect the most vulnerable population — the nation's youth, that is — has turned into a formal procedure by the system in which “the child is least helped and most abused” (Orlando, 1975). The failure to distinguish between status offenses and violations of penal laws by minors has resulted in jammed pretrial detention centers, inadequate and perfunctory court processing, and oversized correctional facilities crowded with status offenders and serious delinquents (including murderers) together. Thus immeasurable damage is inflicted upon youth at an absolutely forbidding cost to society at large. For these reasons the handling of status offenders should be removed from the juvenile justice system and be entrusted to a special service organization which does not have judicial power over its clients. Recent Supreme Court decisions have begun to move in this direction, 1 but few states thus far have successfully incorporated this development into the juvenile statutes, and no state has fully implemented the rulings issued by the highest court in this land. In this paper an attempt is made (1) to review the statutory distinctions and disposition differences concerning status offenders and juvenile delinquents, (2) to estimate the number of detained status offenders as a percentage of all the youth committed to public correctional facilities, 2 and (3) to examine some structural correlates of the forty-eight contiguous states which might explain the differences in the proportion of status offenders detained in public correctional facilities.