respond to the following discussion
New Zealand
It establishes the age of criminal responsibility and the age of prosecution. This is positive because there should be a need to prove the offender understood what was wrong and a five-year-old who takes a candy bar does not inherently understand it is illegal and might just be hungry. Based on the severity of the crime they are different approaches and will look at the offender’s past, for example if this is a first-time offense it could be a warning or focus more on restorative justice. This is good because someone might have offended or stolen something out of need or a bad decision. It is important to not have a punishment so severe it will affect someone for the rest of their life and cause them to reoffend or remain in the system.
Punishment is decided by both the offender and victim’s family. This could be an issue because both have very different perspectives and could have different desires for the outcome. For instance the offender’s family might want them to be forgiven or might think the offender has done nothing wrong. The victim’s family might want more done in terms of punishment, like wanting prison time versus community service. These disagreements could extend the court process. In the family group conference, the judge can change the punishment if they deem it too severe to too harsh, this might be seen as subjective by the families involved.
Italy
The juvenile system in Italy focuses on no interrupting the juvenile’s education as much as possible. This is good because it will prevent the juvenile from falling behind or missing out on education due to incarceration which would perpetuate them being in the prison system. The system of “irrilevanza del fatto” or the case being insufficiently serious. After the examination of the case it allows the judge to dismiss the case as not being serious enough. This is good because it does not tie up the courts with low level cases and it does not unnecessarily create a criminal record for a juvenile who most likely made a bad decision.
In the trial phase there is no cross examination of the minor. This is done to not aggravate the minor, but if the minor is in court and going through trial they should be exposed to what a trial is like. There is no audience and if they complete their probation or sentence appropriately their record would be erased, so it is important for them to understand what goes into a trial if this were to happen when they were an adult. Italy uses primarily non-custodial sentencing or a community released supervision for offenses. This puts the offender back in public, which if the offense is sexual in nature can be bad. Though the parents should help supervise, this sentence creates more responsibility for the people involved and requires the cooperation of multiple individuals. This means the parents need to cooperate with probation, which depending on the parents could be difficult especially if they feel their child did nothing wrong.
China
For low level crimes which range from theft to gambling, the police have the right to reprimand the parents. This allows the police resolve an issue at the lowest level and not tie up the criminal justice system. It creates for a quick response and does not mean a juvenile has to wait a year to see what the result of their petty theft will be, it also encourages parents to be aware of what their children are doing. Instead of prison for repeated violations or non-serious criminal offenses, juveniles are sent to a work and study school. This school focuses on education and discipline, instead of sending children to a prison or juvenile hall type environment, it seeks to educate the offenders. This could lead to better outcomes and give the juveniles more tools for the future instead of remaining in the criminal justice system.
There is no specific juvenile court, juveniles are tried in adult court and they have special modifications to the punishment. This can be bad because the point of a criminal trial is to look at things objectively and if the juvenile is seen as objectively guilty there is no consideration for their background or past. This can be bad because juveniles do not function in the same way adults do and there needs to be a separation from what is considered a child and an adult. A child who gets into a fight because of being bullied is different than an adult who knows they should walk away or not engage. China allows for a minor to be sentenced to life in prison. The minor will do their time in the juvenile facility until they are an adult and will be transferred to an adult facility. This can be bad because a juvenile cognitively is not fully developed and might have made a bad decision, this does not mean they should be locked away for the rest of their life, but there should still be consequences.
England and Wales
There is a parent contract which allows for a formal structure with parents assisting their misbehaving children. This is way to make sure the parents are involved in the children’s lives and to ensure the child is not misbehaving due to a lack of parenting. This is important because there are children who will break the law or misbehave to receive attention from their parents, not because they are delinquents. For first time minor offenses there can be verbal warnings or reprimands. This is good because it might be a small enough violation which would unnecessarily tie up the courts or perhaps the juvenile was unaware of their actions. This allows to educate the juvenile and to not create unnecessary work in the court system.
The age of criminal responsibility for juveniles begins at 10 years old. This age is too early and there is still a lot being developed and explained to a 10-year-old. Though the judges have discretion, there is no need to hold a 10-year-old accountable for the same thing a 16- or 17-year-old minor might do. An example of this would be a 10-year-old playing doctor, which could turn into a sexual assault charge. This would be very different than a 17-year-old playing doctor. Though requiring parents to help monitor their children, this creates more people in the criminal justice system who need to cooperate. This makes it difficult is a parent does not cooperate at one point or does not concern themselves with their child’s behavior and just wants to avoid a fine.
