5. YOUNG OFFENDERS
ASSESS the effectiveness of the criminal justice system when dealing with young offenders
EXPLAIN why young offenders are treated differently in the criminal justice system
This is the only part of Crime where you need to answer TWO
big, overall questions about the whole section
5. YOUNG OFFENDERS
ASSESS the effectiveness of the criminal justice system when dealing with young offenders
The top one is like all the others (assess the effectiveness…)
5. YOUNG OFFENDERS
EXPLAIN why young offenders are treated differently in the criminal justice system
The other one is a little bit different, and we’ll go through it
now so you know WHY it is that we don’t treat young
offenders in the exact same way as we treat adults
EXPLAIN why young offenders are treated differently in the criminal justice system
EXPLAIN why young offenders are treated differently in the criminal justice system
There was a big report about Juvenile Justice in NSW in 2010 – don’t
worry about remembering the full name of it, we’ll just call it
“The Noetic Review (2010)”.
It made a whole lot of
RECOMMENDATIONS about how to fix our juvenile justice system.
But it STARTED with a basic question – WHY are young offenders treated
differently in the criminal justice system
Why don’t we just treat them like adults?
Their (not my) conclusions were basically:
1. Research has shown that young people are less able to make wise judgements because
that is the last part of the brain to develop; young people take risks because it is “in
their biology”; they are more likely to react with gut instincts and be impulsive.
2. Most young offenders aren’t just acting out of pure self-interest – they have usually
been neglected, abused, kicked out of school and often have been drinking and/or
taking drugs during their developmental years
3. Treating young people differently must not mean “excusing” their behaviour – it is
extremely important for their development that they take full responsibility for their
actions (while they are still reassured how important they are)
EXPLAIN why young offenders are treated differently in the criminal justice system
An even DEEPER question is to ask (to impress the markers) –
“ARE we treating young offenders
differently? Like REALLY
differently, or just sort of
differently?
As always, the answer is Yes and No…
Yes, you’re going to learn about a whole BUNCH of ways that
juveniles ARE treated differently (the Children’s Court; the Young
Offenders Act 1997, etc). The goal of juvenile justice is to keep
young people out of jail (not just out of juvenile justice centres, but
to stop them from ending up in jail in the future)
but...
EXPLAIN why young offenders are treated differently in the criminal justice system
We have this unfortunate problem in NSW where
we have ‘Law & Order Auctions’ at every State
election (where Liberal and Labor fight over who is
gonna be tougher on criminal scum).
NEW SOUTH WALES
How do we know this? Well:
1. Except for places like the United States
and the Northern Territory, NSW has one
of the highest RATES of imprisoning
young people IN THE WORLD.
2. More than half the kids that end up in the
Children’s Court don’t have a prior
conviction recorded (meaning that,
possibly for one of their first offences,
they are already in court).
Unfortunately, kids get caught up in this as well,
because of the way the laws are structured…
Noetic Review (2010)
Recommendation:
Kids should be left out of the
‘Law & Order’ politics in
NSW – the focus should be
on programs that work to
reduce recidivism
EXPLAIN why young offenders are treated differently in the criminal justice system
Recent decision to ‘treat young offenders differently’:
After a 13 year-old was sentenced for murder (R v
SLD (2002)), the judge recommended that
something should be done about the way we
sentence young people for murder.
The boy got 20 years (10 years non-parole), but
the judge wished that he had the ability to let his
development be followed to see whether he
actually could be released earlier (which didn’t
exist back then).
The NSW Sentencing Council recommended in
2009 that we bring in a system of
‘Provisional Sentencing’.
EXPLAIN why young offenders are treated differently in the criminal justice system
Recent decision to ‘treat young offenders differently’:
In 2013, the NSW government passed the
Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Amendment
(Provisional Sentencing for Children) Act
2013.
Children who murder from now on can get a
‘provisional’ sentence (meaning that it can
be changed if the judge sees that the child
has made a lot of progress towards
rehabilitation).
The case will be reviewed at least every two
years to see if the child has had major
developments and whether he/she is likely
to reoffend.
EXPLAIN why young offenders are treated differently in the criminal justice system
Recent decision to ‘treat young offenders differently’:
Or, as the Daily Telegraph reported it: