Youthful Offenders

During the 1990s and early twenty-first century, an increased amount of attention has been given to the issue of youthful offenders. A perceived escalation in offenses committed by youth has resulted in calls for stricter penalties for youthful offenders. The question of how to deal effectively with youth crime is not unique to one nation; there are proposals for youth [Page 1756]justice reform around the world. For instance, the Canadian government is in the midst of replacing existing youth justice legislation with a completely new law that attempts to handle the most serious and violent young offenders through formal court sanctions, while diverting the bulk of less serious cases to other, quasijudicial venues.

In 1997, a juvenile in Kobe, Japan, murdered two people and assaulted others. After this much-publicized case, consideration was given to revising Japan's fiftyyear-old youth justice legislation to allow for harsher juvenile penalties. Britain, Canada, and the United States are also focusing quite extensively on the merits of preventative measures and early intervention in dealing with youthful criminality. At the same time, harsh approaches for serious, violent, and repeat offenders—including easier transfer to adult court—are being emphasized to quell public concerns about lenient treatment for young offenders. Concurrently, Australia and New Zealand have led the restorative justice movement in dealing with youthful offenders. In this approach, the emphasis is not focused solely on the punishment of the young offender; attention is also paid to the reintegration of the offender back into the community. In addition, there is a focus on involving the victim and the community in determining the outcome of the case. Several other nations (e.g., South Africa, Canada, the United States) have initiated similar restorative justice programs. Clearly, youth crime and initiatives for reform are widespread. To further understand the current context for dealing with youthful offenders, it is useful to examine the evolution of ideologies of youth justice in the United States, Canada, and other nations.