Child Justice in South Africa

Source: (2008) Monograph 150, Institute for Security Services.

The author argues that the Western approach to juvenile justice historically has been more of a welfarist approach, but recently the pendulum has started to swing towards more punitive forms of justice. However, a proposed alternative to both approaches has manifested in the form of restorative justice. The author summarizes the UN’s provisions on juvenile justice and then goes into a thorough history of juvenile justice in South Africa, from pre-colonization to punitive colonial measures and the subsequent ongoing reform of those measures. Reform efforts recently produced the Child Justice Bill of 2008, which is heavily influenced by restorative justice. The author goes into an overview of probation services in South Africa and then proceeds into a detailed comparison of current juvenile justice law with the proposed changes in the Child Justice Bill.