Law ‘will harm juvenile crime scheme’

GOVERNMENT plans to change juvenile crime law will undermine a garda scheme aimed at diverting troublemakers away from a life of crime, a leading expert said yesterday.

Dr Ursula Kilkelly of University College Cork said an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill will, if passed, allow details of a youth’s involvement in the Garda Juvenile Diversion Programme be taken into consideration in a criminal trial.

Currently, the programme is separate from the criminal justice system and judges cannot seek such information.

“The whole point is that diversion happens away from the criminal justice system, that if you come in with your hands up you won’t be prosecuted and it won’t be held against you,” said Dr Kilkelly of UCC’s law department.

“You agree to comply with whatever caution or restorative justice the guards think appropriate. If the knowledge that if you don’t behave you will go into the criminal justice system and the judge will have a right to know about it is hanging over you, it completely undermines the environment.”

Dr Kilkelly said if Justice Minister Michael McDowell was committed to the diversion programme he would be not bringing in this amendment.

She said the proposal had not come from the gardaí themselves, but from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

She said details published in the Garda Annual Report 2003 last week showed the diversion programme was struggling to cope with the numbers coming before it. The report showed 17,043 children under the age of 18 were referred in 2003.

While 7,950 received a caution and 2,857 were recommended for prosecution, some 5,257 cases were pending.

In addition, 2,716 individuals were cautioned in relation to referrals from 2002.

“There’s quite a considerable number of cases pending. We could have a very minor offence that is not being dealt with, because juvenile liaison officers workload is way too much,” Dr Kilkelly said.

“In some parts of the country they could have hundreds of children on their books.”

Dr Kilkelly said there had only been 147 restorative justice conferences since May 2002. This is where the victim is invited to attend the formal cautioning of a youth. “When you think of the numbers of children going through the programme, this is incredibly low,” she said.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said the purpose of the amendment was to ensure that, at the time of sentencing, the prosecution would be able to inform the court of a young offender’s previous convictions and involvement with the gardaí.

“If this was not possible, there would be a danger of the court not having the full facts to enable it to decide on the appropriate sentence,” the spokesman said. The DPP declined to comment.

Juvenile Crime in Numbers:

3 cases of murder.

5 drunk-driving offences - a rise of 15%.

86 cases of begging - rise of 47%.

97 firearms-related offences - a 10% increase.

108 sexual offences.

165 cases of dangerous driving - a 36% increase.

169 cases of selling or supply drugs - a rise of 10%.

215 cases of the possession of offensive weapons.

967 cases of assault, including 25 cases of assault causing serious bodily harm - a seven-fold rise.

1,569 public order offences - an increase of 5%.

2,856 individuals prosecuted, compared with 3,308 in 2002.

3,539 theft offences.

4,117 drink-related offences - a 3% rise on 2002.

10,666 individuals cautioned, a rise of 426 on 2002.

19,915 offences carried out by juveniles and referred to the programme in 2003 - a 3% fall on 2002.