Juvenile justice in Estonia

Juvenile justice in Estonia

Jako Salla, Estonian Ministry of Justice28.11.2013

Jako Salla, Estonian Ministry of Justice28.11.2013

• Brief statistics• Policy• Prevention

Content

Children who commit crimes

Average length on pretrial proceedings in months

Number of minors in closed facilities

Mediation

• Coalition agreement– School attendance

• Criminal Policy Guidelines– Prevention of recidivism– Prevention of juvenile crime

• Early identification of children at risk– State level child protection system– Evidence based parenting program

• Problems in school environment– Inclusive education, controversies, bullying

Policy priorities

• Prevention of juvenile crime– Juvenile committies

• Quality, speed of procedure

– Reform schools• Repeat offending, support on leaving

– Speed of criminal procedure– Reduction of alcohol consumption– Internet crimes– Sex offender treatment– Cooperation networks

Policy priorities

• In addition to topics already mentioned…• Young victims of violence• Sexual violence– Knowledge and skills of police and judiciary

• Domestic violence

Development plan for reducing violence

• Primary prevention – SCHOOL & HOME– Government support for after school

activities for municipalities– Implementation of school based universal

prevention programs (Good Behaviour Game, Botvin Life Skills)

– Skills and the role of teachers– Parenting skills

Coming up in the future

• Secondary prevention: child protection– New child protection law• Qualification• State supervision• State responsibilities in complicated cases

– Parenting skills– Decriminalization of status offences– Juvenile committees reform– Youth work

Coming up in the future

• Tertiary prevention: police and justice system– Age 14/15 & 18/21– Children & prison – Evidence based programs– New procedural code of misdemeanours

• Child protection

– Special conditions children• Shock imprisonment • Early release• Criminal records

Coming up in the future

• All prevention levels must be involved, sharing of responsibility – 1 goal vs several goals– Networking in all levels

• Effective and appropriate practices must be preferred

• In addition to doing the right things, they must be done in a right way– Evidence based practices– Evaluation

To sum up:

Thank you!