NCJ Number
226043
Journal
Penal Issues Issue: 18 Dated: March 2008 Pages: 11-14
Date Published
March 2008
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This French study examined the judicial processing and family/social profiles of minors arrested and processed by the Juvenile Court of Bobigny (one of the most important in the Greater Paris Area) for their participation in the November 2005 riots following the deaths of two adolescents and the severe injury of a third boy during contacts with the police.
Abstract
For the youth arrested, there was practically no recourse to alternatives to prosecution or other types of diversion. In 35 of the 55 cases examined, the offenses charged included destruction of property, deliberately setting a fire, possession of incendiary substances, or “criminal association” to commit such offenses. In slightly less than one case out of three there was a charge of contempt, obstruction, and assault on a person holding public authority. In selecting persons to arrest at the scene of the rioting, officers faced many small, mobile groups operating in neighborhoods where they lived, with an even greater number of teen and adult spectators at the events. Police often caught those who didn’t run fast enough to escape and youth who were only observing but not participating in the rioting. Therefore, many of the cases lacked persuasive evidence, and evidence that was presented was legally inadmissible. Testimony often included only that of the officers on the scene who made the arrest. When there was sufficient, convincing, and legal evidence, judges sentenced the youths according to the offenses for which they were convicted and also on the basis of their personality, family, school, and social profiles. In three cases, four youths, all with a previous juvenile criminal record, were sentenced to prison. In some cases, probation was ordered until the youths reached the age of legal majority. The study focused on 86 juveniles involved in 55 cases. 1 figure