Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable children in SA
➔
Programmes/services for children in conflict with the law
The criminal
capacity of
children aged
between
10 and 14
must be
determined
by the
presiding
officer,
based on a
probation
officer’s
assessment
Once a child between
the ages of 10 and 14
has been arrested and
referred to a probation
officer by a police
official, the probation
officer must make
an assessment of the
criminal capacity of
the child and make
recommendations to
the court regarding
the child’s criminal
capacity. x
The presiding officer
of the child justice
court must make a
ruling on the child’s
criminal capacity,
having regard to the
probation officer’s
report.
Targeted beneficiaries
Children between the
ages of 10 and 14
who have committed
a crime and who lack
criminal capacity (based
on an assessment
of factors such as
their educational
level, their cognitive
ability, their domestic
and environmental
circumstances, their age
and maturity)
The presiding officer is
the inquiry magistrate
or judicial officer
presiding at the child
justice court.
A ‘child justice court’
means any court
dealing with a bail
application, plea, trial
or sentencing of a
child.
The child justice court
is not a separate court.
It is any court that
deals with a child
accused of committing
a crime and which
applies the Child
Justice Act to the case
at hand (Gallinetti
2009).
The child
may be
diverted
by the
prosecutor
or the
magistrate
before the
trial, or
during the
trial in the
child justice
court
‘One of the main
principles of the Act is
to minimise children’s
contact with the
criminal justice system,
and to use detention
only as a measure of
last resort and for the
shortest appropriate
period of time.’ xi
Diversion is a key
intervention provided
for by the Act to
realise this objective.
Diversion involves
‘the referral of cases
away from the
formal criminal court
procedures’ (Gallinetti
2009: 66).
Targeted beneficiaries
Children aged 10–18
accused of committing
a crime
The prosecutor or the
magistrate presiding
over a preliminary
inquiry or the
presiding officer of the
child justice court
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