I had flashbacks yesterday to the world created in George Orwell’s book, 1984, when I heard about the Ministry of Justice’s plan to pilot Peer Justice Centres, run by and for children, in England.
Not dissimilar to the power given to the child Spies and Youth Lead in Orwell’s Oceania, who informed on their peers and parents over thought crimes, this wacky idea will see children, as young as ten, sitting on a panel to pass legal judgement over other children.
Plucked from the heartland of craziness, also known as the United States of America, the justice secretary, Jack Straw, has invested nearly £500,000 into three pilot projects in Preston, which could go nationwide if it is a success.
In place of magistrate courts, offenders aged under-17, who have admitted their guilt for a minor offence or anti-social behaviour, will face a panel of four children under minimal adult supervision.
Run by the local authority and the crime reduction charity, NACRO, children from local schools will be trained up to issue Acceptable Behaviour Contracts when they sit on the peer panels.
If the offender does not abide by the ABC, which could force them to clean up graffiti or apologise to the victim, the child will be referred to the police.
The most alarming part of this whole pilot project for me is the level of power passed to children. I don’t think kids have the maturity, experience, or balance to pass such important judgements over their peers.
If you look at the politics that collide in school playgrounds, you quickly see that children are fickle creatures, who are easily influenced by their peers and subject to intimidation and bullying. This shouldn’t transfer into the court room.
Comments (2)
The right to a Children’s Court where a child can judge and be judged by his peers was enshrined by Janusz Korczak, the Polish doctor whose teachings inspired the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
There is an excellent article about Janusz Korczak by Rona Epstein in the February 2007 edition of The Legal Executive magazine.
Janusz Korczak (1879-1942) became a renowned doctor, educator and the first advocate of children’s rights who pioneered child-centred education long before it became fashionable.
To quote directly from this article: 'Korczak developed the concept of a Children’s Court where orphan children could be judged by their peers. This grew out of his commitment to respecting the child and his belief in the ability of children to improve, if they were given the opportunity and guidance to do so. He aimed to teach self-respect, forgiveness and active citizenship.
The Children’s Court met every Saturday morning in the orphanage, presided over by five child judges with a teacher acting as the Court Clerk. Any child with a grievance had the right to summon the offender to the Court, and teachers and children were equal before the Court. The person accused had the right to put forward a defence and to appeal. Korczak himself was put on trial on a number of occasions.
Korczak had devised a code of law to guide the child judges and their sentencing with the emphasis on forgiveness. The different wrongdoings were categorised in order of severity. He watched how the children’s moral reasoning would grow and mature as they faced difficult and challenging judgments. They learnt to see the world from different perspectives and to accept the ethical responsibility of reaching a just sentence.
‘The court’s first mission was to protect the weaker child against the stronger . . . only children had the right to serve as judges. The teachers did all the paperwork. When war broke out and I was starving and ready to do anything, I didn’t, because something of Korczak’s teachings stayed with me.’ (Orphan)
Korczak hoped that within fifty years every school would have its own Children’s Court, encouraging respect for the law, individual rights and compassion."
Spurning an offer of safety Korczak chose not to abandon the children of his Warsaw orphanage, preferring instead to die alongside them in a Nazi concentration camp.
The full article is available free of charge from the journal website: www.ilexjournal.com (use the search engine).
James Schofield
Editor, The Legal Executive (2000 - September 2007).
Posted by James Schofield | October 25, 2007 5:28 PM
Posted on October 25, 2007 17:28
I wonder which children would get to sit on the panel?
How would they be chosen?
Working in a school I not only see students individually but also get to know about the different groups that students belong to and those that don't belong to any.
To me this looks rife with difficulties because being a snitch is still regarded badly by fellow students.
Most adults know very little about the current student's world and how they perceive things.
Students won't get this level of power when they are out in the adult world so why pretend to give it them now. What happens if adults don't like the decisions that young people have made?
Or students get bullied because of the decisions they made?
Posted by Rachel Mulcahy | October 28, 2007 6:20 AM
Posted on October 28, 2007 06:20