The treatment of juveniles within the criminal justice systems is a matter of great variety in the 11 European countries studied comparatively. The study focuses on the age of criminal responsibility, ways to divert juvenile offenders from the criminal justice system or avoid criminal justice responses to them, juvenile proceedings and special reactions and sanctions. In spite of different appr...

ISSN 0817-8542 ISBN 0 642 241 98 8 One of the most difficult areas of criminal justice policy lies in providing appropriate legal mechanisms to reflect the transition from the age of childhood innocence through to maturity and full responsibility under the criminal law. Along with specialised institutions such as Children’s Courts and juvenile detention centres, specific legal rules have been d...

In this issue of The Journal, Dr. Peter Ash offers the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law some ideas on developmentally informed assessment of criminal culpability during adolescence. After highlighting issues that complicate the definition and assessment of criminal culpability, Ash lists 10 constructs that he believes should be carefully considered by forensic clinicians in developing...

Definition As West points out delinquency is a sociolegal category.' The definition of a juvenile delinquent, in the UK at least, is a young person between the age of 10 (the age of 'criminal responsibility') and 17 years who has been prosecuted and found guilty ofan offence that would be classified as a 'crime' ifcommitted by an adult. These offences normally result in the opening of a crimina...

are not always evident to the man in the street and are particularly easy to neglect when involved in the highly sensational atmosphere of a murder trial; this is of course particularly so if the details are horrific or sexual or both and if a plea of insanity is raised in defence. It may therefore be helpful to re-state the points at issue. The first point is that lawyers and doctors talk in d...

The authors use a developmental perspective to examine questions about the criminal culpability of juveniles and the juvenile death penalty. Under principles of criminal law, culpability is mitigated when the actor's decision-making capacity is diminished, when the criminal act was coerced, or when the act was out of character. The authors argue that juveniles should not be held to the same sta...

the definition of a crime has never yet been clearly made. A crime has been described as a result of human conduct, which it is the policy of the governing power in the state to prevent. Usually it is followed by a punishment , but this was not always so. In early years, suffering was imposed on the wrongdoer, and in Roman times expiation was necessary to placate the offended gods. That which d...