Restorative justice for delinquents in Hong Kong: current practices and challenges

ABSTRACT

In Hong Kong, juvenile justice embraces mainly disciplinary welfare and rehabilitative philosophies. Various statutory measures are applied to juvenile offenders, including police cautioning, community-based treatment programmes and custodial sentencing options. However, no statutory restorative measure has yet been incorporated into the mainstream criminal justice system in Hong Kong. Several non-governmental organisations are developing innovative strategies to prevent problematic adolescents from slipping into delinquency and are willing to apply restorative practices to help delinquents desist from engaging in criminal careers. This study begins with main features of restorative justice, and it highlights the preventive and correctional services for delinquents in Hong Kong. The study also questions the explanations offered by the government for not implementing restorative justice. By comparing restorative options for juveniles in some Asian jurisdictions, the study advocates for an earlier introduction of restorative justice for the benefits of juvenile offenders.     

Criminal defendants’ family and the death penalty in China - a case analysis

ABSTRACT

The restorative justice movement has increased the rights of consciousness for crime victims and their families globally. Though the practice of family group conferences in Australia and New Zealand and the court-ordered mediation programmes in China have increasingly involved defendants and their families, their roles in the criminal justice system have not been the main focus of academic inquiries. Citing a high-profile capital case in China, the Nian Bin case, this study examines the defendant family’s strategies in seeking legal redress, managing physical, emotional and financial tolls as well as coping with the victim families, throughout their eight-year pursuit of Nian’s exoneration. Given Confucian teachings on the importance of family to the individual and the society at large, this study provides a microscopic view into various precipitating factors for a capital defendant’s family activism. It also draws broader implications for China’s criminal justice reforms and the restorative justice movement.     

Evaluating New Zealand’s restorative promise: the impact of legislative design on the practice of restorative justice

ABSTRACT

Restorative justice is regarded in modern criminal justice systems as one approach to address inadequacies in the conventional justice model. New Zealand has become a leader in implementing legislatively mandated restorative procedures. This reputation is due in part to a handful of supportive statutes: the Sentencing Act 2002, the Victims’ Rights Act 2002, the Parole Act 2002, the Corrections Act 2004 and subsequent amendments to those acts. In this article, I evaluate the practices bolstered by these acts and how effectively they operate, accounting for how legislative design may contribute to achievements and shortcomings in New Zealand's restorative justice programmes. I supplement the results by comparing New Zealand's efforts to those in Vermont, a U.S. state similarly well-regarded for its restorative policies. The evaluation of each jurisdiction's restorative justice programme is based on metrics for restorative success from Bazemore and Schiff (2005. Juvenile justice reform and restorative justice: building theory and policy from practice. Cullompton: Willan Publishing). I employ qualitative and quantitative data, surveying existing evaluations of restorative justice in New Zealand and Vermont, collecting longitudinal statistics, and conducting interviews with restorative justice practitioners. Overall, this analysis reveals that the design of restorative justice programmes requires negotiation; it is difficult to balance the dimensions of effective restorative justice with the needs of modern justice systems.     

China’s Anti-corruption Strategies from the Viewpoint of Criminal Justice

腐败案件的高发案率是中国当前所处的社会转型期的突出特点。为了适应治理腐 败犯罪的需要, 中国刑事司法形成了一整套独具特色的侦查体制、办案原则, 并且注 重依靠群众查办腐败案件, 注重打击重点的随时调整。中国刑事司法注重提高腐败案 件的侦查能力和加强反腐败刑事司法的规范化建设等, 这是中国反腐败策略在刑事司 法领域的具体体现。同时, 中国在反腐败刑事程序如何与国际公约对接等方面面临着 一些挑战, 这也指引着中国刑事司法改进的方向。

关键词: 反腐败 社会转型 刑事司法 司法改革

A high incidence of corruption cases is a conspicuous feature of China’s present stage of social transition. Responding to the demands of combating corruption, Chinese criminal justice has developed a unique set of investigative methods and principles for handling of such cases, placing a high value on relying on the masses to find and act on cases of corruption and promptly adjusting its focus to the key areas of such crimes. It concentrates on enhancing investigative capacity and strengthening the standardization of anti-corruption criminal justice. These practices represent the concrete embodiment in the field of criminal justice of the government’s anti-corruption strategies. At the same time, China also faces some challenges in adjusting these procedures to accord with international practice. This is one of the aims of the judicial reform in China.     

Young Adult Outcomes of Juvenile Court–Involved Girls

ABSTRACT

The recent increase in the number of girls involved in the juvenile justice system has resulted in increased academic and public attention. Thus far, this attention has focused on entry into the juvenile justice system rather than longer-term consequences. This research helps fill this gap by examining a sample of 700 maltreated and/or impoverished juvenile court–involved females. Competing risks models were used to control for time from juvenile-court entry to adult outcomes: criminal justice system involvement, use of public mental health or substance use services, and income maintenance use. Results indicate that there are distinct predictors associated with the different outcomes, although learning disability and adolescent parenthood were associated with higher risk of both mental health/substance use services and income maintenance. Individualized services for juvenile court–involved girls are suggested. Prospective, longitudinal research is needed to investigate intrapsychic and behavioral dynamics associated with females' young adult outcomes.     

Jean Valjean Bank in Korea: an innovative approach to poor defendants sentenced to pay fines

ABSTRACT

This study aims to introduce Jean Valjean Bank in South Korea which is an innovative approach supporting poor defendants who cannot pay fines and accordingly are imprisoned. In Korea, it is reported that we have more than 40,000 Jean Valjeans annually. As a civil movement against the unfair criminal justice system, a non-governmental organisation Human Rights Solidarity (Inkwon Yondae in Korean) opened Jean Valjean Bank in 2015. Jean Valjean Bank targets poor defendants who are not able to pay fines and who are confined to prison because of non-payment of fines. As of December 2017, the Bank has loaned KRW1,024 million to 545 persons with an average loan per participant of KRW1,879,700. The Bank reported that, among the receivers, 84 persons completed redemption and 277 persons are redeeming loans to the Bank. This study concludes with implications for reforms in criminal justice system in Korea.     

Iwi community justice panels reduce harm from re-offending

ABSTRACT

The effect of iwi community justice panels is assessed using data from seven years of implementation. Panel participants of 1013 are compared to a control group drawn from 73,000 offenders charged with similar offences and propensity-matched by age, gender, ethnicity, offending history and location. The dependent measure is re-harm from offending calculated using the NZ Crime Harm Index. Panel participants did not reduce their rate of offending compared to matched controls. However, there is a significant reduction in harm from post-panel offending, on average by 26.9 ± 21.05 equivalised prison days. The relative reduction is 22.25% of the harm committed by matched controls. Iwi panels are an effective alternative justice resolution. Panel participants are found to re-offend with minor offences and thus any focus on rates of offending would miss the complexity of the restorative justice process that reduces the harm of re-offending.     

Enhancing the rights and well‐being of people with acquired brain injuries in the criminal justice system: Some findings from a qualitative study

This article focuses on the issues currently facing people with an acquired brain injury (ABI) in the criminal justice system in the state of Victoria, Australia and, in particular, the impact of this condition on people suffering various forms of social disadvantage. This qualitative study involved in‐depth interviews with key stakeholders, such as service providers working in the system, court personnel including Magistrates and Judges, legal practitioners and persons living with an ABI and their carers. The aim was to determine the advantages and limitations of current policy and practices, and to identify possible actions which could lead to improved outcomes for this cohort. This paper responds to our research findings in relation to two key areas: first, the awareness of ABI amongst legal practitioners and service providers, prompting the need for better education, training and professional development; and second, the requirement to improve processes for identification, assessment and support, for people involved in the criminal justice system with ABI. A number of systemic modifications and educational initiatives are recommended to address the unreasonable and unacceptable impacts on persons living with an ABI in the criminal justice system.     

Addressing the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Examining Micro- and Macro-Level Variables that Affect School Disengagement and Subsequent Felonies

Abstract

This study examines the School-to-Prison Pipeline (STPP) by identifying individual legal and extra-legal variables and school-level factors that predict juvenile/criminal justice involvement using 2006–2012 matched data from education and justice systems (n?=?21,457). The role of school disengagement is also assessed, measuring unexcused absences that follow suspensions in the previous academic year. For the court-involved subsample (n?=?7349), after controlling for student behavior, demographic, and school-level factors; extra-legal racial differences remain a significant factor in determining higher counts of felonies with African American and Multi-racial students at increased likelihood (1.65 and 1.86 times, respectively for the higher latent class) of juvenile/criminal justice involvement as compared with White students. And, although White students were found to either be more disengaged or equally disengaged when compared with students of color, sharp differences in criminal justice involvement and outcomes exist by race/ethnicity. These findings suggest that addressing the STPP will require future research and focus on more than individual-level behaviors (school disengagement and school-based offenses) and attention to the impact of extra-legal variables and systemic implicit bias.     

The Impact of Prison Hospice

Abstract

This study reports on a qualitative national telephone survey with coordinators of 14 prison hospice programs in 11 states. The rationale behind the survey was to learn about interdisciplinary collaboration between social work and criminal justice, using prison hospice as an exemplar of this collaboration. In addition to learning that all prison hospices in the study operate using an interdisciplinary team model and that most report high quality collaboration on the hospice team, the following additional five themes emerged: administrators and wardens are very supportive while correctional staff provides mixed support to team and program; greater collaboration with those outside prison hospice is critical; collaboration through prison hospice has a positive impact on dying prisoners; collaboration through prison hospice has a positive impact on prisoner volunteers; and, collaboration through prison hospice has a positive impact on the entire culture of the prison.     

转型期中国公众的分配公平感：结果公平与机会公平

本文考察了中国公众的结果公平感和机会公平感,检验并比较了社会结构解释和相对剥夺解释在中国的适用性。研究发现,大多数公众认可结果公平和机会公平,且机会公平感高于结果公平感,但二者仅微弱相关。结果公平感由收入水平决定,机会公平感主要受教育水平影响。外资和私营单位雇员比国有和集体单位雇员更具机会公平感,城市中下层就业者对结果和机会分配均持批评态度。“个体相对剥夺”而不是“群体相对剥夺”对分配公平感有决定性影响,结果公平感只受横向剥夺影响,而机会公平感则主要受纵向剥夺影响。     

Justice for children? Child protection and the crimino-legal process

Changes in the crimino-legal process during the last few years have blurred the boundaries between criminal justice and children's welfare in child protection. These developments have, however, received relatively little critical attention within contemporary discourses surrounding child protection. This paper draws upon primary and secondary research findings to explore the appropriateness and effectiveness of current forensically led responses to child abuse. In particular, it questions the adequacy of existing operational constructs of justice in child protection, arguing the case for a far more comprehensive notion of 'justice for children' than presently prevails. Research evidence is reviewed suggesting that current crimino-legally driven practices fail to achieve even the limited objectives of criminal justice, let alone the higher goals of promoting children's welfare or attaining 'justice for children'. Finally the paper explores how these findings may inform and be informed by current debates and practice in social work. While a range of policy and practice remedies are suggested, these, it is argued, must be framed with recognition of the tensions and dilemmas underlying social work in a complex and uncertain social world.     

农村民间纠纷调解中的公平建构与公平逻辑

本文以当代农村的调解实践为切入点,探讨在不同的纠纷类型和不同的情境中,纠纷的公平解决是如何达成的,以及背后遵循着怎样的公平原则。本文发现：维持人际关系延续的调解目标,调解人的角色定位、道德背景及其权威性,调解过程中包括上门调解等多种调解技巧和策略的运用,以及符合农村社会人们所普遍认可的公平提案等,是影响纠纷调解协议即公平达成的重要因素;而社会关系维系、公平的关系性以及综合性等,是中国农民公平观的重要特征。     

Alternatives to Custody in the New Zealand Criminal Justice System: Current Features and Future Prospects

Alternatives to custody in New Zealand have followed a format similar to criminal justice systems in the UK and other European countries but with a stronger emphasis on both punitive, work-based options like periodic detention, and more recently home detention, as well as restorative justice models. Much of current practice relies heavily on the now dated Criminal Justice Act 1985. However, a new sentencing and parole act is proposed for 2002. In this paper the authors review the current alternatives to custody in New Zealand, paying particular attention to issues arising from their recent research on home detention—surveillance, control and impacts on family members—and offering a reflection on the future prospects for alternatives to custody.     

Dimensions of Restorative Justice

Restorative justice proponents tend to focus their attention on criminal justice initiatives in a small number of developed countries, but restorative processes (which encourage citizens to negotiate among themselves, rather than rely on professionals to adjudicate), and restorative values (which emphasize the importance of repairing and preventing harm), can be found across a wide range of regulatory fields. Teachers, social workers, corporate regulators, civil mediators, members of truth commissions, diplomats, and peacekeepers all—at least some of the time—practice a variety of restorative justice. Consideration of these often-neglected examples can help refine current restorative justice theory and practice, which in turn has insights to offer practitioners and researchers in these fields.     

Comparing criminal justice responses to violence against women in Canada and China

Canada and China are two very different countries in terms of their socio-economic and political contexts; however, neither country is immune to the social problem of violence against women. This paper compares the criminal justice responses to violence against women in Canada and China in order to explore the pathway of responses to violence against women in different cultural contexts, and discusses the implications for addressing violence against women on an international horizon.     

社会公平保障体系研究:国外经验及对中国的启示

构建社会公平保障体系,既是建立和谐社会的要求,也是完善中国特色社会主义市场经济制度的题中应有之义。近年来,我国社会保障制度进行了相应的改革,并取得了一定成效。但从根本上说还不完善,影响了社会保障的公平性。我们党提出社会公平保障体系建设,为我国社会保障事业的发展指明了方向。结合国外经验,笔者认为我国社会公平保障体系建设包括:积极推进农村社会保障制度建设;加大社会保障对收入调节力度;加强社会保障的法制建设等。     

Revival and Development of the Criminal Reconciliation System in China

Abstract

随着和谐社会治国方针的提出与宽严相济刑事政策的深化, 中国刑事和解制度呈 现出不断拓展的态势。2012年新?刑事诉讼法?以“特别程序”编的形式, 专章规定 了“刑事和解”, 第一次在?刑事诉讼法?中全面确立了中国式的刑事和解制度。但就 目前立法来看, 刑事和解程序设置还相对粗放, 也存在诸多争议。刑事和解未来发展 方向应当强化规则性完善与制度性建设。

With the adoption of the governance policy of a harmonious society and with the further strengthening of the criminal policy of mitigating severity with leniency, China’s criminal reconciliation system is undergoing rapid development. In the 2012 Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China, criminal reconciliation is stipulated in a separate chapter under “Special Procedures,” thereby comprehensively establishing for the first time a criminal reconciliation system with Chinese characteristics in the Criminal Procedure Law. However, China’s legislation on criminal reconciliation remains relatively broad-brush and controversial. Improved regulation and system construction now point the way for future development.     

Mindfulness Training for Social Service Providers in Hawaii: Context and Considerations

Abstract

Few studies exploring outcomes for mindfulness training have specifically focused on social service providers such as case managers, juvenile justice (probation/parole) officers, family court liaisons, substance abuse and mental health counselors, and school behavioral health specialists, among others. This study examined whether social service professionals across various agencies in the state of Hawai‘i would be accepting of mindfulness-based training and practices, and explored their personal practice experiences. Participants (N?=?97) received mindfulness skills training including mindful breathing, mindful walking, and the body scan. Through post-evaluation surveys, practice logs of homework practices, and reflections, they were then asked to reflect on their experiences with the practice and identify potential changes that they would attribute to mindfulness. Interpretative phenomenological and content analyses revealed that participants generally reported a high level of acceptance of the mindfulness training and practices but progress, continuity, and sustainability were slow. Findings provided some indications of mindfulness resulting in salutary effects for social service professionals, but the training structure was problematic. Future research needs to examine how institutional, cultural milieu facilitate or hinder opportunities for social service professionals to embody and embed mindfulness in daily life; this would require multimodal and qualitative methodologies that seek to highlight and understand the live experiences of social service providers.     

Explaining the perceived justice of disaster relief policy: An empirical study based on the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China

The Chinese government issued generous relief policies after the Wenchuan Earthquake. However, according to my survey, 20.32 per cent (n = 1,949) of the earthquake victim‐survivors felt that they were treated unfairly in receiving government assistance after the earthquake. In the present study, a perceived justice framework was established to explain the victim‐survivors’ perception of justice of the disaster relief policy in China and several hypotheses were developed. The hypotheses were tested empirically using household survey data of the Wenchuan Earthquake. The empirical study found that perceived justice, which is composed of three dimensions (distributive justice, interpersonal justice and informational justice), could directly assess the effect of the disaster relief policy. The results of the empirical study also demonstrated that the most important principle of the disaster relief policy was ‘need distribution’, which was also the most important factor of perceived justice. The study concluded that it is imperative to improve victim‐survivors’ feeling of fairness, policy information delivery and their expectations management when implementing a disaster relief policy.