Juvenile Law Violators, Human Rights, and the Development of New Juvenile Justice Systems

This volume brings together scholars and practitioners specialising in juvenile justice from the US, Europe, alongside scholars from Africa and Asia who are working on human rights issues in developing countries or countries in transition. The book thus presents two types of papers, the first being descriptive and analytical academic papers on whole systems of juvenile justice or certain parts thereof (e.g., aftercare, restorative justice, etc.). These topics are presented as essential for the development of new juvenile justice systems. The second group of papers deal with efforts to promote reform through international activity (PRI, DCI, DIHR), and through efforts to utilise modern theory in national reforms in developing countries (Malawi, Nepal, and Serbia) or in countries experiencing current or recent political and systemic changes or developments (South Africa, Germany, and Poland). The volume is also intended to throw light on recent trends in juvenile crime in various countries, the relationship between actual developments and popular and political perceptions and reactions to such developments, including the efforts to locate effective alternatives to the incarceration of young offenders. At the same time as the search for such alternatives is being intensified through international exchange and experimentation, the amelioration of harsh measures against juvenile law violators is often countered by political and public outcries for security and demonstrative public intervention against misbehavior. A streak of new moralism is clearly discernable as a counteracting force against more humane reform efforts. The volume throws light on developments in the actual parameters of juvenile offending, public and political demands for security and public intervention, and measures to provide interventions which are at the same time compatible with international human rights instruments.

Eric L. Jensen is Professor of Sociology, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, U.S.A.

Rosemary Hunter FacSS is Professor of Socio-Legal Studies and Founding Head of Law at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Loughborough University, UK. She is a feminist socio-legal scholar with particular interests in family law and family justice processes, judging and the judiciary, and access to justice. She has published widely on these topics in both Australia (where she began her academic career) and the UK. With Anne Barlow, she was a member of the ESRC-funded Mapping Paths to Family Justice project, which resulted in their prize-winning book, Mapping Paths to Family Justice: Resolving Family Disputes in Neoliberal Times (Barlow, Hunter, Smithson and Ewing, 2017). Rosemary has been the Academic Member of the Family Justice Council since 2016 and leads the Council's Domestic Abuse Working Group. She is also a member of the Private Law Working Group and the Ministry of Justice's Expert Panel on Harm in the Family Courts. She is a former Chair of the SLSA and a former Council member of JUSTICE.

Jørgen Jepsen is Senior Consultant at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and Associate Professor Emeritus in Criminology at the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

David Nelken is Professor of Comparative and Transnational Law and past Vice-Dean for Research at King's College London, UK. Widely published in sociology of law and in criminology, he has received awards from the American Sociological Association, the American Society of Criminology, the International Sociological Association, and the (USA) Law and Society Association. He has twice been a Trustee of the LSA and Vice-President of the RSCL.