Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: A Critical Review of Access to Justice for Children
- Part I Children’s Access to Justice in Child Protection Proceedings
- Part II Children’s Access to Justice in Judicial and Non-Judicial Procedures
- Part III Obstacles to Children’s Access to Justice and Avenues For Solutions
- Part IV Critical Reflections On Children’s Access to Justice
- Concluding Remarks on Children’s Access to and Participation in Justice
Access to Criminal Justice for Minors in France
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 November 2022
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: A Critical Review of Access to Justice for Children
- Part I Children’s Access to Justice in Child Protection Proceedings
- Part II Children’s Access to Justice in Judicial and Non-Judicial Procedures
- Part III Obstacles to Children’s Access to Justice and Avenues For Solutions
- Part IV Critical Reflections On Children’s Access to Justice
- Concluding Remarks on Children’s Access to and Participation in Justice
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Criminal justice is aimed at trying offenders, which is to say the authors of the behaviour that is the most seriously injurious to the social order. It may, therefore, convict them and sentence them to more or less harsh terms, in accordance with the severity of the offence. Criminal justice is thus strong, powerful justice, and striking justice as well, due to the issues that it reflects. Indeed, in criminal matters the freedom of an individual, their estate, their honour, or their reputation are at stake.
As such, criminal justice is not reserved for persons who have reached the age of majority. Minors may access it, against their will or – conversely – willingly, depending on the situation. Access to criminal justice for minors appears in effect in a radically different way, depending on whether one contemplates minors as the perpetrators of offences or as victims.
In the case of young offenders, it is indeed despite themselves that they ‘access’ the criminal justice system because they find themselves in a criminal procedure, as perpetrators or accomplices in an offence. The issue is thus not to say whether young offenders may gain access to the criminal justice system, but rather that of finding out how the criminal justice system will take into account young offenders’specificity. In this regard, since the beginning of the 20th century the juvenile criminal justice system has been gradually adapted and specialized, under the combined effects of the legislature and of case law. Very recently, criminal law for young offenders has been profoundly modified by the adoption of a code specifically for minors, the Code for Juvenile Criminal Justice (CJPM). Studying access to criminal justice for young off enders thus provides an opportunity to examine the changes made by this new legislation, and to ensure that the specificities of criminal justice for minors are always respected.
In the case of minors who are victims, the issue of access to the criminal justice system emerges in a radically different way.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Children's Access to JusticeA Critical Assessment, pp. 97 - 108Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2022