Young Offenders and the Criminal Process – Youth Justice Conferencing

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Young Offenders and the Criminal Process – Youth Justice Conferencing (a) Describe the issue and the history of this issue The issue of youth justice conferencing arose as a result of minor offences tying up matters in court, which in the end did not facilitate for the crimes committed by juvenile offenders. This fell under the broader category of restorative justice, as society and victims did not feel as though the restitution matched the severity of the damage incurred. As a result, there were a number of diversionary schemes established for young offenders all over Australia. These schemes were designed to divert juveniles who commit less serious offences away from the courts and into a graded system of alternative ways of dealing with anti-social behavior. The issue of youth justice evolved into the concept conferencing, which can be considered as an option if a young person has committed an offence that is covered by the Young Offenders Act 1997 (cwlth), but is too serious to be dealt with by way of police warning or formal police caution. The point of this is to keep young offenders out of the criminal justice system and rehabilitate them instead of sending them to juvenile detention for periods at a time. (b) Explain the problems in the current criminal justice system with reference to that issue The main problems in the current criminal justice system can be seen as: • the failure to address social and economic dimensions of juvenile crime • inadequate legal frameworks • high level of violence and abuse from police The failure to address the dimensions of juvenile crime arose due to a number of reasons, but common to a few key points. Firstly, in reference to the social issues, the general public and local communities did not feel as though the juvenile offender really understood how the crime they committed impacted on everyone; including the
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