Juvenile Justice Systems of South Africa, Philippines and France

Solution Preview

South Africa and the Philippines have similarities within their system regarding their mission to use diversion to prevent the harm caused by implementing children into the criminal justice system stigmatizing and labeling them as criminals. South Africa's primary stated mission of their system is to use seven different types of diversionary intervention for certain acts committed by juveniles including life skills interventions, peer/youth mentorship, wilderness/adventure therapy, vocational skills training and entrepreneurship programs, restorative justice programs, counseling, and therapeutic programs, and multi-modal programs. The overall objective of their mission aligns with the Philippines stated mission of maintaining the best interest of the child with this obviously translating into the least amount of detention possible for juvenile offenders (Van der Merwe & Dawes, 2009).

In contrast with European countries regarding classification of children that commit different crimes, South Africa does not place children in classification according to probability of future offenses because of a lack of diversionary programs available. This results in children being placed among others who are more prone to continue committing crimes establishing a negative situation where weaker children can become preyed upon while in juvenile detention as well as becoming "criminal schools" if lower classification children committing lesser offenses are placed with higher classification children committing higher criminal offenses (Van der Merwe & Dawes, 2009).

Another unfortunate correlation that South Africa and European justice systems have in common are that the majority of children in their systems are ...