Access to Justice for Child Victims: Examining the Juvenile Criminal Justice System

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-366-5_56How to use a DOI?

Keywords

juvenile criminal justice system; child victims; access to justice

Abstract

Criminal offenses involving children as both perpetrators and victims often lead to extended controversy. The lengthy judicial process causes trauma for children confronted with the law. The juvenile justice system provides mechanisms for diversion to resolve cases outside of court. This diversion is believed to offer the best protection for child offenders. The emerging issue is whether diversion also serves the best interests of child victims. How is access to justice for child victims ensured within the juvenile criminal justice system? The objective of this research is to examine access to justice for child victims within this system. The methodology employed is a legislative approach within the framework of criminal law reform. The findings indicate that the regulations within the juvenile justice system have upheld the best interests of child victims. Various principles established provide space for child victims within the diversion process. Diversion will occur only with the consent of the child victim or their parents/guardians; this principle aligns with the best interests of the child victim. Child victims are involved in mediation and are given opportunities to express their needs. They are accompanied by their parents or guardians; however, at times, the agreements reached may reflect more the desires of the parents or guardians. Nonetheless, child victims still retain access to the justice they seek, as manifested in the diversion agreement.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ahmad Sofian
AU  - Rena Yulia
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/02/28
TI  - Access to Justice for Child Victims: Examining the Juvenile Criminal Justice System
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Social Environment Diversity (ICOSEND 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 587
EP  - 597
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-366-5_56
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-366-5_56
ID  - Sofian2025
ER  -