Juvenile Justice in England and Scotland
| Published date | 01 January 1982 |
| Author | Betty Tahourdin |
| DOI | 10.1177/0306624X8202600105 |
| Date | 01 January 1982 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
32
Juvenile
Justice
in
England
and
Scotland*
Betty
Tahourdin
THE
Scottish
system
of
Children’s
Hearings,
introduced
as
a
result
of
the
Kilbrandon
Report,
is
a
completely
new
concept
in
deal-
ing
with
the
problems
of
delinquents,
difficult
or
abused
children.
Interestingly
the
Kilbrandon
Report
dealt
little
with
the causation
of
crime,
and
passed
over
the
many
new
sociological
ideas
that
had
arisen
in
the
sixties.
It
aimed
at
producing
a
system
which
would
be
more
relevant
to
each
individual
child,
and
basically
it
con-
sidered
the
delinquent
child
as
one
whose
upbringing
had
been
at
fault.
The
Children’s
Hearings
were
designed,
therefore,
primarily
as
family
sessions,
in
which
the
parents
and
the
child
could
discuss
with
a
group
of
interested
lay
people
the
best
course
of
action
to
help
the
child
overcome
his
problems
and
anti-social
behaviour.
In
the
first
place,
a
child
is
referred
to
the
Reporter
of
the
Hear-
ing,
and
it
is
for
him
to
decide
which
cases
should be
continued
and
which
discharged.
He
can
draw
on
social
enquiry
reports,
and
he
has
three
main
options:
(a)
to
refer
the
child
to
a
Hearing
(54
per
cent
of
all
cases)
(b)
to
discharge
the
case
(c)
to
refer
to
the
local
authority
social
work
department
with
the
intention
of
achieving
some
form
of
voluntary
super-
vision,
or
to
the
police
for
a
formal
warning.
If
he
takes
the
first
option
and
the
child
and
his
parents
accept
the
grounds
for
referral,
the
child
is
brought
before
the
Hearing;
if
they
contest
the
grounds
it
is
brought
before
the
Sheriff
and
only
if
then
proven
will
it
come
before
the
Hearing.
The
Hearing
consists
normally
of
the
Reporter
and
three
panel
members;
the
child
and
his
parents;
the
social
worker.
The
Hearing
is
not
a
Court
of
Law,
and
though
legal
advice
and
assistance
is
available,
no
defence
counsel
attends
the
hearing.
The
Reporter
and
the
members
of
the
panel
are
all
lay
people
and
no
criterion
is
laid
down
as
to
qualifications
or
status.
Despite
this,
there
appears
to
have
grown
up
a
certain
group
attitude,
and
there
seems
a
fairly
uniform
pattern
of
treatment
and
disposition
in
the
whole
of
Scotland.
Children
out
of
Court
examines
in
detail
the
working
of
the
Hearings,
its
impact
on
children,
their
families
and
on
social
workers
and
the
various
factors
which
affect
the
outcome
of
the
Hearings.
*Children
Out
of
Court,
F.
M.
Martin,
Sanford
J.
Fox
and
Kathleen
Murray,
Scottish
Academic
Press,
1981,
ISBN
7073
0287
0.
*Receiving
Juvenile
Justice,
Parker
Howard;
Cashburn,
Maggie
and
Turnbull,
David,
Oxford:
Blackwell,
1981,
ISBN
0
631
12727-5
and
0
631
12745-3
(pbk).
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