Children in conflict with the law: assessing the implementation of the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 in the Eastern Cape province
- Authors: Chakuwamba, Kapesi Antony
- Date: 2015-06
- Subjects: South Africa. -- Child Justice Act, 2008 , Children -- Legal status, laws, etc
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/24945 , vital:63683
- Description: The study explored efforts made by various stakeholders involved in the implementation of the Child Justice Act (CJA). It is essential to get insight on the roles of stakeholders in the child justice and view how their efforts could or do not warrant an effective coordination of the child justice system. This study was inductive in nature. Primary data came from in-depth interviews with individuals and government officials as well as focus groups with children in conflict with the law. Various assumptions relating to delinquent behaviour were highlighted by a description of the various factors underlying or contributing to this behaviour. The theories discussed such as social disorganization and differential association are relevant to this study and help to understand juvenile delinquency. It is essential to look at the extent and causes of juvenile delinquency as well as the history of child justice in South Africa, so that this can be used as a yardstick to measure the development of the law on child justice and see if the coming of the new CJA has made improvements to address juvenile delinquency. This study showed that the development of international and regional norms and standards on juvenile justice such as the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child, the UN Minimum Rules for Administration of Juvenile Justice, the UN Standard Minimum Rules For the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty the UN Guidelines for Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child provide a comprehensive framework at the international level within which the issue of child justice should be understood. The study also argued that although the CJA brought new innovations in the criminal justice system, challenges in various key provisions of CJA such as assessment, preliminary inquiry, diversion, sentencing, child and youth care centres are noted. Other key findings include lack of training or capacity building, unavailability of budget and public education awareness. There is a need to look at these challenges to improve the multi-sectoral implementation of the CJA. , Thesis (LLM) -- Faculty of Law, 2015
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- Date Issued: 2015-06
The implementation of the Child Justice Act: experiences of social workers working as probation officers
- Authors: Mkokeli, Babalwa
- Date: 2014-11
- Subjects: Children -- Legal status, laws, etc , Probation officers , Juvenile justice, Administration of
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/25282 , vital:64138
- Description: The implementation of the Child Justice Act (Act No. 75 of 2008) started on 01 April 2010. The law regulates ways of handling children found to be in conflict with the law. Whilst this law was still a Bill, probation officers who are social workers employed by Social Development & Special Programmes were already bound to work with young offenders, employed under the Probation Services Act no.116 of 2002. Probation officers had clear regulations on their role and responsibility towards children found in conflict with the law, unlike other stakeholders working within the sphere of child justice. Absence of the law encompassing child justice caused a struggle for probation officer because stakeholders like South African Police Service (SAPS), National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Department of Justice services were not considering services of probation officers important. The situation was frustrating because there was lack of cooperation between probation officers and role players like police, prosecutors and magistrates which often led to gross irregularities on cases of young offenders. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of probation officers with the implementation of the Child Justice Act, particularly working relations with the above mentioned stakeholders. The researcher used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), a qualitative research approach which is committed to examining people’s daily experiences. In collecting data the researcher used a semi-structured questionnaire schedule comprising open rather than closed-ended questions. The researcher intended to interview fifteen probation officers working at OR Tambo District Municipality. A purposive sampling was used targeting officers who are aware of the child justice system before and after the implementation of the Act. Study findings revealed improvement on working relations between SAPS, NPA and Justice such as (i) increase in the rate of informing probation officers about arrested children, (ii) sitting of preliminary inquiries (PIs), (iii) drop in the number of detained children, (iv) practice of in camera proceedings for young offenders. However, despite the presence of the Child Justice Act (CJA) findings also revealed challenges which were the following: (i) drop in the number of arrested or diverted children, (ii) non-compliance by SAPS to inform POs about arrested children especially during weekends, which often results in parents not being aware that their children are in custody, (iii) areas where PIs are not held, areas where they are not regular as well as non-uniformity in how PIs are conducted, and (iv) cases of children held in public during court proceedings and cases of young offenders handled as adult cases. The following were made as recommendations arising from the study: (i) enforcement of Child Justice Forums at local levels, (ii) strengthening of responsibility and accountability by all stakeholders, and (iii) building capacity and effective monitoring from down up. , Thesis (MSoc) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2014
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- Date Issued: 2014-11