Separation of children from adult courts (week 3)

Question 1

Separation of children from adult courts

Answer 1

• occured in 1905 with the Neglected Child and Juvenile Offenders Act
  
  • ​age of criminal responsibility was set at 10
• Child Welfare Act 1939 allowed for children victims of welfare matters to be sentenced alongside and to similar institutions as juvenile delinquents charged with criminal offences

Question 2

Features that characterised the emergence of the children’s court

Answer 2

• supposed to dissolve the confrontational nature of the adult courts and take into account the special needs of children
• meant to be focused on:
  
  • informalism
  • rehabilitation
  • therapeutic interventions
• In reality the childrens court became a mixture of welfare and and punishment style sof juvenile justice reffered to as penal welfarism
  
  • ​these courts blurred the lines between delinquency and neglect

Question 3

Dispersion of power to extra-judicial experts

Answer 3

• The Welfare Act ​1939 enabled extra-judicial experts to make decisions and have discretion on how to sentence children
• Psychologists, social workders and extra-judicial supervisors were able to act as defacto judges with the power to decide who would be punished and how
• penal welfarism focused on the character and nature of the child and their family background and not the offence, considerably enlarging the possibilities for dealing with children brought before the courts