Trial lecture - time and place
Adjudication committee
- Professor Ragnhild Hennum, University of Oslo (leader)
- Professor Trude Haugli, University of Tromsø (1. opponent)
- Dr. Elisabeth Eneroth, Malmö University (2. opponent)
Chair of defence
- Professor Marit Halvorsen
Supervisor
- Professor Kirsten Sandberg
Summary
A dual-track reaction system with a long history
The thesis is based on the legal division of responsibilities and tasks between the child welfare service and the criminal justice system in respect of children who are in conflict with the law. The use of special reactions to child and youth crime has been the subject of criticism and debate in Norway from the end of the 19th century until today, and today's system has long historical roots. Today, this area of law is regulated in both the Child Welfare Act and the Criminal Code, mainly in the Criminal Procedure Act and the Prosecution Instructions, but the theme also links to the Criminal Code, the Police Act, the Conflict Council Act and the Penal Code. For children under the age of 15, the child welfare services alone can take measures under the Child Welfare Act, but the police and prosecuting authority can conduct investigations against the child and can forward the case to the child welfare service. For children between the ages of 15 and 18, the relationship between the child welfare service and the criminal justice system constitutes a two-track response system, where the tracks are intended to safeguard different purposes and considerations for the children and society. Criminal response should primarily address the need to combat crime, while measures under the Child Welfare Act must safeguard the need to provide assistance to the child in the form of care and treatment.
The tension between penalties and treatment purposes
The growing importance of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child regarding the treatment of children in the area of criminal justice has led to stronger pressure to extend the child welfare responsibilities towards children who are in conflict with the law. At the same time, there has been a development in the view of the use of punishment against children and the purpose of the punishment. This creates a potential for tension in the purpose-based distinction between treatment and punishment that forms the basis of the current Child Welfare Act. This development provides a basis for a deeper analysis of how child welfare responsibilities for children in the two-track response system have arisen and evolved over time, what responsibility the Child Welfare has to safeguard children in conflict with the law based on current law, and to what extent today's scheme is in accordance with the requirements that must be set for a coherent system for the protection of children in conflict with the law.
Different perspectives and approaches
The dissertation consists of four parts that form a whole, but which illustrate the topic from different angles. The introduction provides a background for the choice of theme and problem. The main part is an analysis of the legal relationship between the child welfare system and the criminal justice system from the current law (the legal dogmatic perspective), with special emphasis on the fundamental questions related to the different considerations behind the two reaction tracks. But the issue is also addressed in a legal history perspective, because history is an important prerequisite for understanding the current division of responsibilities. The dissertation concludes with a legal policy section, where some of the main issues are discussed in a more forward-looking perspective.