Abstract
The juvenile justice system in Ireland has developed slowly against the backdrop of the Children Act 2001 which is the first major legislative reform of juvenile justice since the 1908 Children Act. The ethos of the legislation promotes the diversion of children from the justice system, penalties that have the least restrictive impact on children’s legitimate activities and the use of detention as a measure of last resort. The system follows international juvenile justice trends in combining a dominant philosophy (welfare) with a hybrid mix of other influences including restorative justice, actuarial justice, rehabilitation, reintegration and rights-based approaches. A notable feature of the Irish system, and reflecting its welfare ethos, is the high levels of discretion afforded to criminal justice managers and practitioners in their decision-making in children’s cases. The modest size of the detention population is a positive outcome of juvenile justice reform to date. The National Children Detention Centre which is due to be fully operational in the latter part of 2016 marks a significant milestone in the development of the juvenile justice system in Ireland by ending the practice of detaining children in adult facilities.
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Notes
- 1.
The DCYA has responsibility for the childcare elements of the Children Act 2001 and for the new National Children Detention Centre. The DJE has responsibility for crime prevention, criminal proceedings and diversionary interventions as well as engagement with key criminal justice agencies such as the police (An Garda SĂochána), the Probation Service and the Prison Service.
- 2.
The 2001 Act refers to persons under 18 years as children and for this reason the terminology of child or children is adopted in this chapter.
- 3.
The only available information refers to general criteria used in decision-making such as the seriousness and persistence of children’s offending and/or previous involvement in the GJDP. Outcomes are divided into categories of: informal caution, formal caution, no further action, case pending and unsuitable for admission but no further information on the nuances underpinning these outcomes are provided.
- 4.
DPP v G Judgment of Ms. Justice Iseult O’Malley delivered the 24th January 2014; D v DPP Judgement of the Supreme Court delivered by Ms Justice Dunne on the 30th July, 2014; D v DPP Judgement of the Supreme Court delivered by Ms Justice Dunne on the 30th July, 2014; Sharon Cullen v DPP Judgement of the Supreme Court delivered by Chief Justice Denham on the 16th October, 2014 (Mullan 2014).
- 5.
The detention school estate based in Lusk Co. Dublin consisted of three institutions (Oberstown Boys School, Oberstown Girls School and Trinity House) until 01 June 2016 when the legislation came into effect to amalgamate them into the National Children Detention Centre.
- 6.
The Criminal Justice (Community Sanctions) Bill 2014 , when enacted, will replace the Probation Act 1907 and create a modern statutory framework for community sanctions in Ireland.
- 7.
Probation orders accounted for a further one-third and the remainder consisted of supervision orders under the 2001 Act (13 %), community service orders (3 %), and full and partially suspended sentences with supervision (2 %) (ibid.).
- 8.
The risk assessment instrument used by the Probation Service in Ireland is the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI).
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Seymour, M. (2017). Ireland. In: Decker, S., Marteache, N. (eds) International Handbook of Juvenile Justice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45090-2_16
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