I INTRODUCTION | II “CHILDREN”, “YOUNG PEOPLE” AND “JUVENILES” | III KEY PRINCIPLES FOR DEALING WITH CHILD OFFENDERS | IV A PRINCIPLED APPROACH TO CHILDREN IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW | V ASKING THE HARD QUESTIONS | VI CONCLUSION | APPENDIX
II “CHILDREN”, “YOUNG PEOPLE” AND “JUVENILES”
It is important to define “child” for the purposes of this paper. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC) defines a “child” as:[9]
“For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.”
The words “child” and “young person” are used differently and interchangeably in different countries. In New Zealand a sharp distinction is made between a “child” - someone aged under 14 years - and “young persons” who are unmarried young people aged 14 to 16 inclusive.[10] Other jurisdictions use the word “children” for everyone under the age of 17 or 18 - for example the state of Victoria in Australia. In keeping with UNCROC and usage at this conference, this paper will use the term “children” for all people under the age of 18.
However, no use is made of the word “juvenile” as in the writers’ view this invariably has negative connotations. For example, people talk about juvenile offenders, juvenile courts and juvenile penitentiaries but seldom speak of juvenile soccer teams, juvenile violinists and juvenile scholarships. As the former Chief Social Worker of New Zealand’s Child Youth and Family Services, Mike Doolan noted: “... young people find [the word 'juvenile'] deeply offensive. They are the first to realise that juvenile is usually only used as a companion to the word delinquent. Juvenile is not a word used in relation to young people except where they are involved with the criminal justice system and thus it is a stigmatising term.” [11]
Footnotes
9 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Art. 1.
10 Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 (NZ), s2.
11 Mike Doolan, former Chief Social Worker at the New Zealand Child, Youth and Family Service quoted in E Watts A History of Youth Justice in New Zealand, January 2003 available on the New Zealand Youth Court website at <www.justice.govt.nz/youth>.
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