Youth Justice

Juvenile justice systems across the United States have a common history of rehabilitative ideals and federally required due process protections; however, each state maintains goals for its juvenile justice system specific to that state. The goals stated in the purpose clauses of the states’ juvenile justice codes offer an evaluative opportunity to determine whether the policies, programs, and practices within the juvenile justice system are congruent with the statutory goals. The qualitative thematic analysis of state purpose clauses presented in this study reveals goals beyond the traditional conceptualizations of a rehabilitative juvenile justice system and constitutional due process protections. The multiple, overlapping goals of each state’s juvenile justice system invites stakeholders to conduct evaluations to determine the alignment of each state’s goals with the structure of its juvenile justice system.

Young First Nations Australians typically distrust and are reluctant to cooperate with the police. This article discusses data from a pilot intervention programme regarding First Nations young people’s involvement in car theft and joyriding. We conducted seven in-depth interviews with young Australians – most of whom identified as First Nations Australians – and six key community stakeholders who helped to deliver the programme. Our findings indicate that both sample groups held negative and distrusting perceptions of the police which, for the young people, were often precipitated by perceived discriminatory and procedurally unjust encounters with the police. We argue that heavy-handed and discriminatory policing of young First Nations Australians may perpetuate youth offending and joyriding behaviours among this group. The article argues that the police should adopt more community-oriented policing approaches to build trust with young First Nations Australians.

In criminal research, there exists an enduring question: ‘How old should a person be in order to be treated as an adult for purposes of criminal prosecution?’ The recent Amendment XI to the Criminal Law of China has not only lowered the minimum age of criminal responsibility but also established a procedure for the prosecution of young children. This article conducts a detailed examination of China’s minimum age of criminal responsibility and the procedures for the recent approval of prosecuting young children. It contends that China’s Amendment XI is an important measure that should be adopted to ensure the safety and well-being of society.

The ongoing debate over the immigration–crime nexus has continued to attract a wide range of research efforts in the criminal justice field. To build on these initiatives, this study not only examines the relationship between immigrants and adolescent crime but also explores attributes derived from containment effects that may contribute to or shield individuals from deviant behavior in America. Results showed that both immigrant and native-born adolescents share similar external attributes rather than internal traits that affect delinquency. For instance, inherent immigration status and identity is relatively more influential on self-reported substance problems among immigrant youth compared to their native-born counterparts. Interestingly, among external attributes, immigrant and native-born adolescents are responsive to legitimate opportunity and neighborhood order in different ways which thrust them into different deviant pathways.

This article explores and reflects upon some of the ethical tensions and practical issues relevant to the author’s research which involved undertaking narrative inquiry with young people from Anglo-Saxon and Pacific Islander cultural backgrounds, and First Nations young people, all recently released from youth justice detention in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Ethical tensions which arose while undertaking this research related to the impact of gatekeeper reliance, through minimising the likelihood of reprisals for young people engaging in the research, as well through practical and relational limitations exacerbated by the advent of Covid-19.

The development of a trauma-informed Scotland is an ambitious and important agenda, but not without its challenges and limitations. In restrictive settings that rely on the application of power and control as part of their modus operandi, genuinely trauma-informed practice may be difficult to achieve. Drawing on interviews with 11 children, this article maps their experiences of police custody to trauma-informed practice principles. The gap between the espoused policies and the realities of custom and practice outlines the boundaries of trauma-informed practice in justice settings. The article concludes that police custody is antithetical to the concept of trauma-informed practice.

It is widely accepted that legal responses to criminal offending by children should be based on the principle of ‘minimal intervention and maximum diversion’. Criminal law processing can increase a child’s chances of ongoing contact with the criminal law system; however, there is limited research about what effect a court appearance has on a young person’s trajectory. In Australia, formal criminal courts retain decision-making authority in youth justice matters, rather than restorative panels or tribunals, although some children’s courts have adopted problem-solving programmes on an ad hoc basis. We interviewed 46 youth justice practitioners in Queensland, Australia, to gather their perspectives on the use of problem-solving approaches in children’s criminal courts. Somewhat surprisingly, most participants did not consider problem-solving courts to be appropriate for children. Instead, they emphasised the need to deliver services to children outside the court system, recommending increased interagency collaboration, and liaison and diversion services.