The smoking ban in closed community institutions for juvenile offenders: situated within a comprehensible and coherent legal framework?

• In Event: Juvenile Justice 3. Emerging Issues in Juvenile Justice Research

Abstract

In the Flemish Community, young people who have (presumably) committed an offence can be placed in a closed community institution when subjected to the residential measure or sanction of closed placement. In these institutions, smoking has been banned since 2019. However, young people staying here often ask why it is not allowed. As an argument pro smoking and vaping, they often pitch that it would bring them mental peace. They also point out that smoking is not criminally prohibited for minors, and thus when outside the facility, they do have the choice to smoke.

The aim of this presentation is to take a look at the legal framework behind this smoking ban in the community institutions for juvenile offenders. Is it comprehensible and coherent? In answering this question, consideration is given not only to the general legal framework on smoking by minors (in closed, publicly accessible facilities), but also to a comparison of the regulation in the community institutions with the regulation in other closed facilities (for young people).


Liese Hofkens, teaching assistant and PhD candidate, Institute of Social Law and Leuven Institute of Criminology, KU Leuven and monthly commissioner at community institution De Kempen, campus De Hutten


Published article: L. HOFKENS, “Het rookverbod in de gemeenschapsinstellingen: gesitueerd binnen een begrijpelijk en coherent juridisch kader?”, TJK 2023, 252-259.

Author

• Liese Hofkens, KU Leuven