NCJ Number
152610
Journal
Current Issues in Criminal Justice Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1993) Pages: 240-262
Date Published
1993
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This analysis of recent trends in juvenile justice policies in Australia and the United States concludes that although Australia is unlikely to eliminate separate juvenile court jurisdiction soon, changing public attitudes and the experience of the United States may lead to major reforms.
Abstract
Responding to public concerns about juvenile delinquency and violent juvenile offenders, United States has enacted many reforms that have resulted in greater detention and incarceration of youths. However, these policies have not resulted in greater rehabilitation or a reduction of recidivism. In Australia, strengthening legal interventions in juvenile delinquency will fail, because it fails to address the fundamental social injustices that produce these forms of crime. Boot camps, day programs, and other programs are attractive, but ineffective, while prisons and detention centers are counterproductive in the long term with respect to both public safety and the human development of the offender. The 1990 Youth Justice Coalition in New South Wales, as well as Australia's courts, are acutely conscious of the limitations of legal intervention. To their credit, Australia's courts have resisted the urge to punish to the exclusion of other aims of sentencing. Thus, they are likely to rarely use the Crime (Serious and Repeat Offenders) Sentencing Act 1992, which represents a travesty of sentencing policy. Footnotes