NCJ Number
147446
Journal
Criminal Justice Ethics Dated: (Winter/Spring 1993) Pages: 3-25
Date Published
1993
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article describes a model for dealing with young offenders and considers its broader implications.
Abstract
The question of how best to deal with juvenile delinquents, and which crimes committed by young offenders, raises wider issues: (1) the appropriate balance between retribution and rehabilitation, or whether either approach is adequate; (2) the divide between a public sphere governed by common and statutory laws and a private sphere governed by family rules; and (3) the relationship between rights and obligations. In addition, juvenile justice has been a testing ground for criminological theory. However, there is still no clear consensus on whether juvenile delinquency is primarily a symptom of inadequate internal self-control or of inadequate external social control. Hence the call for an interdisciplinary approach in criminology that would integrate recent advances in psychology and sociology with contemporary thinking in moral and political theory. One would expect proposals for public policy to flow from such an integrated theory. The author proceeds in reverse order, describing an existing model for dealing with young offenders and considering its implications for criminology, moral philosophy, and political theory. Notes