| Summary: | 碩士 === 銘傳大學 === 法律學系碩士班 === 98 === Abstract
The Reform of the Juvenile System in Taiwan
By
Ru-Fung Jenq
Master of Laws
Ming Chuan University, Taiwan, R.O.C.,2010
The Juvenile System was deemed by Roscoe Pound, the well-known American Jurist, as the greatest creation of the judicial history. This statement represents the significance of the judicial system. Because of the immaturity of juvenile offenders, a majority of nations are more lenient to juvenile status offenses despite the considerable differences in each nation’s history and culture. There are several types of juvenile system, including Continental system, Anglo-American system, Nordic system and the Modified system. The welfare-oriented Modified juvenile system was developed based on accommodation of Continental system, Anglo-American system and Northern Europe system. This article is to address the possible reform of our nation’s juvenile system based on the welfare-oriented concept.
Our nations’ juvenile system was enacted in 1962. This system was highly influenced by the social and political climate at that time. Because our juvenile system then contained a lot of punitive provisions, it was referred by our scholars as the Penal Code in miniature. The 1962 juvenile system was reform in 1997 into a concentric-circles structure designed to protect juvenile offenders’ personal dignity. The parents and schools form the inner layer of protection, and the judiciary forms the outer layer of protection. The legislative purpose of the 1997 reform indicated that our juvenile system has become welfare-oriented.
This article examines the current status, implementation difficulties and defects of the 1997 reformed judicial system. This article also introduces the Germany and U.S. juvenile systems and discusses the diversion system, preliminary investigation report, social welfare institutions, parental obligations and criminal punishment from the comparative law perspectives. This article also provides recommendations of change based on the welfare-oriented concept to transform our judicial agencies into juvenile welfare coordinators for the purpose of providing adequate assistance to juvenile offenders.
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