Abstract

Children who have committed crimes should not be treated as criminals and bare the whole responsibility for their actions .Instead, a system that can manage their cases should be put in place to see that their behavior is rectified. This is the argument that has given rise to children first, offenders’ second. The CFOS is based on prevention, diversion and intervention. It seeks to reduce child committed crimes through proper judicial procedures that are inclusive and treats the children fairly. Children have not matured emotionally and mentally therefore they are disconnected to the consequence of their actions.it would be unfair to treat them the same way as an adult. Almost all the reasons that cause a child to commit a crime are not accommodated in the YJS therefore the need for children first, offends second (Haines, & Case, P 67,2015).

  

Introduction

Children first, offenders second is used to create a new perspective on how the society looks at the youth justice system. It seeks to change how children who have committed crime are treated. The CFOS aims at enabling the society to reduce crimes rates associated with children and at the same time make them more responsible and productive .CFOS will creates a child friendly legal system that corrects children rather than seeing them as criminals who need punishment. It also comes up with preventive approaches to crimes that in turn promotes good, acceptable behavior in the society. When children who have committed crimes are held to account for their actions and their psychological and social behaviors are not corrected, they are bound to repeat the same crimes they committed in the future. The CFOS seeks to reduce crimes committed by children .CFOS therefore shows the various approaches used to handle child cases and their effectiveness.

 Children first, offenders second is a very unique perspective to the youth justice system. Children should be treated as children first and not as criminals, their acts should be interpreted as a stage of growing up. In order for the CFOS to be successfully implemented in the youth justice system, there are three principles upon which it should be based on:

 Prevention

It advocates for good behavior, education and other basic needs that children require in order to survive and develop in the society. This principle depends on the environment that the adult people provide to the children. The environment should provide and design programs that offer children proper services such as consultations, the right to engage and participate in matters pertaining the cases that affect them directly and indirectly. This will allow children’s self-esteem to increase and create a free environment that can correct and improve the behavior of the children before it gets out of hand. A similar evaluation was carried out in Welsh where children were involved in decisions making in matters that affected them. The effectiveness of the exercise was more positive as unacceptable behavior dropped among the children within the youth justice system. (Haines, & Case, 2015, P 67).

 Diversion

This principle tries to find a way of incorporating laws that supports better management of children. For example in Wales , they give priority to better management through the bureau model that is focused on the wellbeing of children and involves other parties such as the police , youth justice system workers, families and the children themselves. This ensure a CFOS is supported in every stage of the justice system. As result of using diversion, the legal process becomes holistic through the intervention of parties involved in making the decisions and consultations. The inclusion of every party gives judgments that are fair and morally upright (Haines, & Case, 2015, P 109).

 Intervention

This principle favors children. It advocated for policies, practices, parties, system designs and service delivery that supports the children and brings about fairness to them. Involvement  and dialogue in YJS have proved to be effective and a good way of ensuring the protection of children by preventing prejudgments and a system that is already against them .Involvement and dialogue also promotes a positive outcome. When a child is released from the youth justice system rather than exhibit an antisocial behavior that results from unfair treatment, he or she will be a well-behaved individual. For example in wales and England, intervention has promoted discretion among all parties and other specialists involved.

Role of leaders in government

One of the main roles of the central government is to devolve the functions of the YGS .This lessen the pressure off the central government. The responsibility will then spread to the local governments and its personnel. Devolvement will ensure that youths get access to the services offered by YJS. The quality of the services can be monitored by inspectorates at different intervals to ensure service delivery remains of good standard. Though some useful functions will still be performed by the central government such as ensuring funds are disbursed from the ministry of justice, the other functions can be devolved. Another role by the central government is to set the goals and objectives for the youth justice system. This will give direction to the legal framework within which the YJS is supposed to exist. Objectives also set the standards within which one can use to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the goals set (Hopkins Burke, 2016 p199).

 Recommendations

The justice system should put in place measures that will see the cases of children prioritized to avoid wastage of time in court. Court summons should ensure presence of parents in courts. A parent’s absence should be only excused under very unavoidable circumstances such as terminal illness among others. Presence of parents will ensure that the child receives emotional support from his parents. The fee structure of the cases in the youth court should also be subjected to a review in order to improve their status by attracting more experienced professionals. Judges should be trained to deal with cases that involve children in a professional manner. Schools which cater for children who have committed crimes should be established in every institution and equipped with trained personnel that can help with behavioral change. (Review of the youth justice system in England and wales p 50)

 Conclusion

The justice system should be reformed in terms of policies. The changes will enable accommodation of laws that will see to it the fair treatment of children. Intervention, diversion and prevention are the three principles of children first, youth second. The government has a major part to play and this is through devolving services and funds in the ministry of justice to ensure that the youth system of justice is catered for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

Haines, K., & Case, S. (2015). Positive youth justice: children first, offenders second.

Review of the Youth Justice System in England and Wales

Hopkins Burke, R. (2016). Young People, Crime and Justice. London: Taylor and Francis.