Alternatives to Custody for Young Offenders Online Consultation

Online Consultation

The international phenomenon of juvenile delinquency and, as a consequence, the evolution of juvenile justice, should be studied and analysed from a global perspective taking into account the plurality of situations worldwide.

In this project, the IJJO was in charge of collecting information about foster care as an alternative to custody through an online survey composed of 8 questions, and of producing the respective compendium of results. In the same period, the IJJO selected more than 24 experts who would produce a report at national level on juvenile justice systems, restorative approaches and foster care within the juvenile justice system. The IJJO produced the respective compendium of results obtained.

Questions

1. Is alternative family care used within your country to protect and support the welfare of children and young people not able to be parented in their own families?

2. If alternative family care is provided, please give a brief outline of this provision, and the support/supervision available to foster carers, children and young people in foster care, and their birth families.

3. What are the resources or routes for diverting children from involvement in the youth justice system, and do they include the provision of alternative family care in the senses referred to above, i.e. including both non-related foster care, family or friends care and other forms of family care?

4. When children are dealt with by the courts either pre or post sentencing, is the provision of alternative family care in any form available to the courts, and/or used by the courts in any form?

5. What is the extent to which children are remanded at home with their birth families but with conditions (curfews, electronic tagging and so on, and with psychological help/counselling and so on)?

6. If alternative family care is provided as part 4 or 5 above, is this care provided as part of a structured programme?

7. If alternative family care is not available, what are the pathways, and types and duration of sentences for children through the custodial system, and the resources available for resettlement and after care?

8. Is there any outcome research on the results of children being placed in alternative family care or sentenced to other court disposals?

Presentation: Online Consultation Results

 

With financial support of the Daphne III Programme of the european Union