NCJ Number
209815
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2005 Pages: 151-166
Date Published
May 2005
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article describes the legal framework for the waiver of juveniles to adult court in Belgium, discusses the theoretical basis for this practice, documents its use in Belgium, and surveys Belgian magistrates' opinions about the policy.
Abstract
The overview of the legal framework for the waiver addresses the criteria for applying the waiver, the use of social and medical-psychological inquiries, the automatic wavier, and the consequences of waiver. The discussion of theoretical insights regarding the waiver notes the increased repressive climate that has pervaded developments for Belgium's juvenile justice system and argues that the deficiency of the juvenile justice system and its available interventions could be partly responsible for the loss of confidence in its ability to deal with serious juvenile offenders. This section of the article includes a discussion of objective and offense-based criteria for waiver, the increasing power of the public prosecutor in using the waiver, the growing role of incapacitation in public-safety policies, and the need to modernize Belgium's juvenile justice system and interventions. In documenting the use of the waiver, this article supplements recent statistical studies with the authors' own quantitative profile of the referral of juvenile offenders to adult court. This involved an analysis of files in five districts for juveniles referred to adult courts in 1999, 2000, and 2001. Belgian magistrates' views of the waiver practice were also obtained. Magistrates viewed the waiver as an exception to the management of juvenile cases rather than a general practice; and in some of the districts, the waiver was rarely used. Most of the magistrates were trained in the rehabilitative goals of juvenile justice, and their broad discretion in managing cases has prevented the waiver from being widely used. The authors favor a less punitive and more constructive strategy for addressing serious and habitual juvenile offenders within the juvenile justice system. 32 references