Ten years into the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008: Locating the position of imprisonment within the restorative justice framework.
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Date
2020
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Abstract
Prior to the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008, South Africa’s child justice system was
regulated by the Constitution, the common law and various legislations. Child
offenders were processed in the same criminal justice system as adult offenders.
The adoption of the Child Justice Act created the procedural framework that is
influenced by restorative justice principles and Ubuntu, for dealing with child
offenders. In the midst of this rights-based approach child justice system, Chapter
10 of the Child Justice Act regulates the process of sentencing child offenders and
provides a list of sentencing options, which includes imprisonment. The essential
question to this study is whether the child justice courts are effectively applying the
provisions pertaining to the imprisonment of child offenders in terms of the Child
Justice Act. Court judgments where the sentencing of child offenders were an issue
are examined. The existence of these cases illustrates that the effective application
of the imprisonment provisions (these being section 69(1) and (4) of the Child Justice
Act) remains a challenge even though the child justice courts have had ten years
since the promulgation of the Child Justice Act to ensure these provisions are
effectively and consistently applied.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.