Penal Responses to Serious Offending by Children: Principles, Practice and Global Perspectives

This book explores the principles, practice and challenges in determining justice system responses to serious offending by children globally.

Divided into four parts, the book provides a balance of theoretical and empirical insights. Anchored in a theoretical framework based on the human rights of children, as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it considers the relationship between scientific evidence (such as brain development) and the human rights framework, before going to explore the diversity of responses to children who are found responsible for serious offences. It brings together experts from various disciplines to fill a gap relating to serious offending by children in the literature. Scholars from Africa, Latin America and Asia, as well as Europe, North America and Oceania provide perspectives from legally, socially and culturally distinct jurisdictions. The first part focuses on the theoretical framework and explores the applicable standards and principles, including the relevant human rights framework and penological approaches to sentencing children for serious crimes. The second part analyses available empirical evidence, including evidence relating to the profiles of children who commit serious crimes, child and adolescent development, effective sentencing approaches and evidence of disparities in responses to serious offending by children. The third part provides a discussion of justice system responses to serious offending by children in a range of jurisdictions or regions with diverse and distinct legal, social and cultural contexts. Finally, the book uses the theoretical framework, empirical evidence, and case studies of jurisdictions to reflect on how principles relating to responses to serious offending by children can be translated into practice, and to highlight key debates and issues that will need to be explored into the future.

Adding much-needed international perspectives to the scholarship addressing the issue, this book will be of great interest to academics, students, legal practitioners and social work professionals working on youth justice and children’s rights across the globe.

Nessa Lynch is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her primary research interest is the criminal law and the criminal justice system as it applies to children and young persons. She has published books, chapters and journal articles on issues in youth justice; particularly around principled approaches to children and youth who commit very serious offences such as murder. She has a strong interest in the academic – policy interface and is regularly called on to advise government.

Yannick van den Brink is an Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and a Rubicon Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, Institute of Criminology, United Kingdom. He publishes and teaches widely on themes related to youth justice, criminal justice, criminology, children’s rights and human rights. In addition to his academic work, Van den Brink serves as a deputy judge in the Youth Court of the District Court of The Hague.

Louise Forde is a Lecturer in Law at Brunel University London. Her primary research interests lie in the area of children’s rights law and youth justice. She has published journal articles and book chapters on a variety of issues relating to youth justice, and has authored reports for bodies such as Save the Children, the Irish Penal Reform Trust and the Policing Authority (Ireland). She has worked with government and advocacy groups to promote the realisation of children’s rights in youth justice systems. She is a member of the editorial board of Youth Justice: An International Journal.