NCJ Number
154201
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1994) Pages: 625-650
Date Published
1994
Length
26 pages
Annotation
Sweden's juvenile justice system formally attempts to uncouple social welfare from penal social control by providing a social welfare system that deals with youth on the basis of their service needs rather than in response to their criminal behavior.
Abstract
Sweden does not have juvenile courts; youth 15 years of age and older are tried in the same criminal justice system as other offenders. Yet, Sweden formally recognizes that youthfulness mitigates criminal responsibility and therefore provides shorter sentences for young offenders because of their reduced culpability. Despite Sweden's attempts to separate welfare from criminal social control for young offenders, a youth's crime and recidivism are closely linked to compulsory treatment in the welfare system. Sweden's welfare and criminal justice systems appear to differ significantly from juvenile courts in the United States, but compulsory provisions of the Swedish welfare system operate in a remarkably similar fashion. Recent legislative reforms in Sweden acknowledge that a welfare ideology masks the connection between offense and sanction and propose that coercive sanctions be applied only by criminal courts. 42 references, 16 footnotes, and 2 tables