Modern Juvenile Justice System

The research value of Modern juvenile justice has long been neglected. So far, the research on Chinese modern juvenile justice system is only mentioned simply when going through the history of the juvenile justice system. In the Early 20 th century, when the juvenile court movement from USA was spreading over the world, China was also involved, and made a positive response. All the previous governments are keen on the construction of the juvenile justice system. Thanks to the contribution of various entities, juvenile detention, juvenile prisons and juvenile court, juvenile justice agencies have been established. During the construction process of modern juvenile justice system we have gained rich experiences, especially concerning the interactive experience between Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare. This experience becomes a valuable asset for the development of the today’s juvenile justice system.The object of the thesis is the modern juvenile justice system in China. It consists of introduction, 1-6 chapters and the conclusions. This thesis adopted the literature research method to study the history of the modern juvenile justice system. The Research shows that the construction of juvenile justice system needs not only dreams and plans but also a platform. The key to the development of the juvenile justice system are resources from outside the justice system such as modern view on Children which is based on equality and child warfare.The Introduction illustrated the origin of the thesis, and introduced the content and differences of the major concepts in this thesis. It aims to illustrate the current research status of the modern juvenile justice system. Existing research in this area, include only in the records from the time. It is difficult to find complete comment from the after generations. The establishment of the juvenile courts is the symbol of the juvenile justice system. This thesis use the construction process of the juvenile justice system as a clue, focus on the research about the juvenile court, juvenile prisons and juvenile detention.Chapter I, the introduction of juvenile justice. The introduction of modern juvenile justice system began in the late Qing Dynasty. From the earliest description of Western prisons, to the first impression about the West juvenile prison. The execution system of Western humanitarian idea became a great shock when it was introduced to China. The international prison conference originated in the United States and Europe became an opportunity for China to know about the latest development of criminal theory in the late Qing Dynasty. In particular, the trial of juvenile justice system in China’s neighbor Japan, gave China an opportunity to get a close look at the juvenile justice operations. Jiaben Shen, Kang Dong and Shiying Xu are the key persons in the legal reform of late Qing. During the procedure of “West learning introduced into China”, their legal idea contain a wealth of legal thought in juvenile justice ideology, simultaneously, they were the representative of juvenile justice thought. Through the analysis of their relevant legal thought and legal practice under their auspices, this chapter aims to understand the influence of the juvenile justice theory and its practice in the late Qing Dynasty. The late Qing Dynasty passed the "Qing prison draft law" which contains provisions about juvenile prison, in addition, Shiying Xu submitted "Superior Court juvenile courtroom pilot pamphlets." to the Qing government. Government’s concern and active practice about western juvenile justice system began in the late Qing Dynasty.Chapter II, the preliminary establishment of Juvenile Court. The establishment of juvenile courts is seen as the sign of the establishment of juvenile justice system. On the basis of the concept of parental authority of the country, the United States created the world’s first juvenile court and launched the juvenile court movement over the world. The early establishment of Modern China’s juvenile court was mainly influenced by the US juvenile court movement. Therefore it is very necessary to understand the origin and early development of the juvenile court of the United States before beginning the analysis of the juvenile court. This chapter reviewed this process after illustrating the origin of the American juvenile court and its impact on route of Chinese juvenile court development. Before the beginning of the modern juvenile court, there had been two initiative climax. The first climax appeared in 1930 to 1936, ends with the introduction of "hearing juvenile cases should be treated considerations"; the second climax appeared after the victory of the war towards Japan from 1945 to 1949. Due to the withdrawal of the Republic of China government to Taiwan, elaboration of the juvenile law in mainland China was forced to stop. Overall, the external driving force such as Chinese Society Welfare Agencies and the legislative, judiciary dominate internal driving forces were the eventual key force that led to the establishment of the juvenile court. Republican administrations actively committed to the juvenile court for the preparation and implementation of prudent considerations, due to the impact of the war, until 1948, the juvenile court was able to pilot the district court in Nanjing. This Chapter attempted to illustrate the enforcement of the Nanjing juvenile court. Although the establishment of the juvenile court was a bit late, but before the establishment, the government has made several legislative attempt, hence, the chapter also focus on the study of those un implemented drafts.Chapter III, the establishment of juvenile detention. Under the background of the rise of protectionism, juvenile detention centre is actually the earliest modern juvenile judiciary. This chapter analyses the juvenile probation concept in modern evolution firstly. After the understanding of the theory of the Origin of juvenile probation, it clarified the spread and development of this idea in China. Child welfare and juvenile justice are two correlated areas, the chapter focuses on the role of promoting the welfare of children in juvenile justice. This promotion is not only reflected in the creation of the juvenile judicial appeal, but also showed more during the juvenile justice process participation. Under probation concept expansion and the poor social, economic and political environment, the establishment procedure of juvenile detention is not smooth. In the original design, as an organization distinguished from a theoretical juvenile prisons and children’s charity organization, the establishment of juvenile detention centre were and jointly promoted by the judiciary and charitable organizations. This "hybrid" background, coupled with the impact of the war, the establishment of the Republic of late juvenile detention actually tended to be a hybrid organization of children’s charity and the prison. Some child welfare agencies cooperate with the judiciary organization and had some function of juvenile detention centre. In addition, in this process, there has been some specialized child welfare agencies housed street children and children of slight negligence. Their innovation in juvenile education, to some extent, promoted the development of the juvenile justice system.Chapter IV Establishment of juvenile prisons. The establishment of juvenile prison is integrated in the historical process of the evolvement of the modern prison. After analyzing the establishing background of the juvenile prison in Republic of China this chapter explored the establishing process. Under the influence of the international prison conference, and prison reform movement, the dream of establishing juvenile prisons was finally realized. In1934 Modern China’s first juvenile prison was established in Jinan, Shandong, Hubei and then Chahar. The road of establishing juvenile prisons, has experienced the process of gradually from idealism to reality, its strategy adjusted gradually to construction of juvenile prisons and juvenile prison area simultaneously. Although there is a huge gap between the original grand design and the final result, compared with the juvenile court and juvenile detention, juvenile prisons are relatively well developed. This chapter investigated specifically the enforcement of juvenile prisons, Shandong juvenile prisons issued special regulations after the establishment. The regulation specifically regulated the organization, facilities and educational work of the juvenile prisons which became a model guideline for other juvenile prisons. The Juvenile prisons is an essential part of the modern Prison Reform which is of great significance.Chapter V Institutionalized juvenile justice. This chapter analyses the theoretical foundation of modern juvenile justice after studying the content of the relevant rules about modern Chinese teenager. The special concern on juvenile in Modern legislation originated from the ancient thought of "respect the old and caring the juvenile". Although the thought of "caring the very young" is actually a top-down care from the ruling class to the ordinary people, which is fundamentally different from the modern juvenile justice, it is actually the tradition basis of the juvenile justice system. The spreading and development of modern childhood concept and juvenile justice theory, is the legislative foundation for the modern juvenile laws. Although no independent juvenile law has been issued in modern China, specific legal provisions related to juvenile are not uncommon, they are often scattered among the various branches of law, such as criminal liability in criminal law, Age requirements, probation, education provision for juvenile criminals, and solitary confinement. In addition, there are some relevant draft law that has not officially announced, such as "draft Juvenile Law" drafted in the 1930 s, the restart of the draft plan of juvenile laws in the late 1940 s, shows the effort of the Chinese government put into the relevant legislation.Chapter VI, Lesson from juvenile justice. This chapter consists of two major parts, the general analysis of the establishment of the modern juvenile justice system, and the lesson from juvenile justice system in contemporary China.According to the study of modern juvenile justice system, we have found five impression. First of all, the modern juvenile justice system has been initially established. The first juvenile probation school was established in 1923, and the first juvenile prisons was built in1934. In 1948 the first juvenile court began, so the juvenile justice system is finally established, in which the juvenile court is the core of the juvenile justice institution, while the juvenile prisons and the juvenile detention are the core of juvenile correction system. Simultaneously, a unified juvenile law was being draft, modern China’s juvenile justice system had been initially established. Second, the construction of the Chinese juvenile justice system in modern history, was synchronized with the trend of juvenile justice over the world. It is an important part of this development. As a product of legal transplants, like in other countries, China’s juvenile justice system is at its early stage. We should hold a rational view about the achievements of juvenile justice in modern China. Many difficulties we encountered also exist in other developing countries. Indeed contemporary juvenile justice system is backward comparing with other countries, the design and development of modern China has reached a considerable level in this aspect.Third, the reform begins from the juvenile correction system. The reform extend from the correction field to the trial field. This has become a rule of development for most juvenile justice system in many countries. The development of this system in modern China has also followed this rule. The reform concerning the concept of execution, the social background of prison improvement, and the child welfare agencies concern about the correction system, which leads to the establishment of the juvenile correctional system. Fourth, with rich color of child welfare. Juvenile justice is closely related to child welfare, child welfare is considered as the cornerstone of juvenile justice construction. The construction of Juvenile justice agency in modern China has rich color of child welfare. Many Juvenile Probation agencies are very closely linked with the child welfare agencies. Many juvenile probation agency is driven by the child welfare agency’s establishment, or directly based on the child welfare agency. Throughout the way, the child welfare agency is also a major force in advocating juvenile court.Fifth, the strategy shows the gradual coordination between passion and rationality. Unlike the foreign countries where the development of Juvenile justice has been accompanied by reflections, each Chinese governments showed great enthusiasm in the constriction of the juvenile justice system, criticisms rarely appear. This enthusiasm showed in the way of sincere applaud and hard learning and imitations. Learning from the lessons of failures, unrealistic plans were gradually replaced by reasonable prudent strategies. In the construction of juvenile prisons and juvenile courts, this evolvement has been particularly evident.Modern study of the juvenile justice system, is of great significance to the development for the contemporary development of juvenile justice system. The lesson could be summarized in three points. First, the construction of juvenile justice system, require reasonable prudence, legislation first strategy. The construction of the juvenile justice system in modern China is part of the reform of the entire judicial system, and part of the reform of the modern political and social system. History tells us that the transplant of law should combined with rational analysis of local resources. Legislation needs to be cautious, but simultaneously the construction of a legal system requires the legislation to go first. Second, the development of the juvenile justice system, depends on the concern of the juvenile correctional system. The experience tells us that a well-functioning juvenile correctional system is the guarantee for an efficient juvenile justice system. Comparing with the court system and the prosecution system, the research and exploration of contemporary juvenile correctional system is obviously insufficient. The backward correction system has become an obstacle for the development of the juvenile justice system.Third, the development of the juvenile justice system also requires the development of child welfare. The Value of juvenile justice is not only reflected in the judicial procedure, but also outside the judicial procedure. The sound development of juvenile justice is bound to the precondition of a synchronized modern concept of children and child welfare. The good interaction between Juvenile Justice and Child welfare, is the deepest impression in the history of the development of modern juvenile justice system. This is also the key to overcome the obstacle of today’s juvenile justice’s development.