NCJ Number
190225
Journal
Caribbean Journal of Criminology and Social Psychology Volume: 5 Issue: 1&2 Dated: January/July 2000 Pages: 237-259
Date Published
2000
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article discusses juvenile delinquency treatment in Japan.
Abstract
In Japan the peak of juvenile delinquency was in 1983, and since then the total number of those treated in facilities for juvenile delinquency had declined. In the Japanese juvenile justice system there are three kinds of facilities: private facilities for juveniles put under tentative probation, homes to support a child’s independence, and juvenile training school. Due to the Correction School Law, the government funded two correction schools whose purpose was to offer educative treatment to inmates. During World War II, correction school inmates were trained in a military fashion and commuted to ammunition factories. After the war these practices were abolished and the Juvenile Training School Law was passed. This law had four characteristics. First, it prescribed that the school was a facility to offer education for correction to inmates. Second, the classification treatment system was adopted by introduction of four kinds of juvenile training schools: primary schools, middle schools, special schools, and schools for medical treatment. Third, the progressive treatment system of four stages was introduced. Fourth, inmates in the juvenile training school were guaranteed their right to education. At that time juvenile training schools had poor equipment and insufficient human resources. The law prescribed the establishment of special training schools for juveniles with advanced criminal tendencies. Until the middle 1960s, juvenile training schools were overcrowded and many juveniles received bad influence through their informal human relations. Since the middle of the 1980s, however, the population of teenagers in general has decreased, as young couples have not wanted to have many children. In the early 1990s, the total number of inmates of juvenile training schools continued to decrease. The school placed emphasis on guidance on skills for life rather than vocational training. Currently, police are arresting juveniles by using a more serious offense classification system, therefore, more juveniles without serious criminal careers are referred to juvenile training schools. 18 endnotes, 13 references