NCJ Number
204296
Date Published
2003
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This chapter reviews the socio-cultural context of South Africa and discusses the Child Justice Bill, a restorative juvenile justice statute.
Abstract
The Child Justice Bill, when enacted, will become the first separate statute that deals with children accused of crimes in South Africa. The main objective of the act is to promote “ubuntu,” an African value and philosophy that basically means the “essence of being human.” The draft Bill, with its goal of promoting ubuntu, is restorative in nature. Diversion is a core component of the proposed system, with three different levels of diversion suggested. Level one offers diversions for minor offenses that are less intensive and short-term, while levels two and three offer more intensive diversions, such as family group conferencing. Sentencing options fall under four categories: community-based sentences, restorative justice sentences, correctional supervision, and compulsory residential sentences. The authors review the socio-cultural history of South Africa, with a focus on the traditional sense of community and the bonds shared between community members, which are embodied in the term ubuntu. The Child Justice Bill echoes the traditional sense of community and the spirit of ubuntu because restorative justice processes involve the community in the restoration of harm caused by offenses. This mirrors the traditional approach to dealing with problems involving children in South Africa. However, The Child Justice Bill, while seemingly perfect for the South African context, may have trouble fitting in to the modern day South African environment, in which economic depression and westernization has broken the core of the community and flung communities and families far apart in the search for economic and physical survival. Two case studies are offered that involve children accused of crimes and the responses of the community. In both cases, children were accused of crimes by citizens, not police officers, and were dealt with personally by those citizens without any legal intervention or concern for the rights of the children. The case studies illustrate the way in which ubuntu is under threat of disintegrating in South Africa. The Child Justice Bill will succeed only if clear and unambiguous political support can be fostered; if the attitudes of criminal justice personnel can be swayed to a more restorative stance; and if the current retributive attitude of communities can be addressed and softened. Notes, references