Comparative Jjuvenile Justice: From Global Human Rights Standards to Sub-national Practices

• In Event: Various Colors of Juvenile Justice: Some Key Messages from Comparative Research

Abstract

A range of global human rights standards ostensibly provide a unifying framework for juvenile justice. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, the United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child are particularly noteworthy. Despite such instruments, however, significantly divergent practices are evident both between and within nation states. By drawing on findings from a four-year research project on comparative youth penality, I argue that variations within nation state borders (intra-national) may be as great, or even greater, than some differences between nation states (inter-national). In this sense taking the nation (let alone the inter-national and/or the global) as the basic unit of comparative analysis becomes highly questionable.

Author

• Barry Goldson, The University of Liverpool