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Justice and Troubled Children: An Examination of the Belgian Experience

NCJ Number
132568
Journal
EuroCriminology Volume: 3 Dated: (1990) Pages: 103-133
Author(s)
G Kellens
Date Published
1990
Length
31 pages
Annotation
An overview of the sociological and criminological characteristics of Belgian youth leads into an analysis of the country's youth protection and welfare system.
Abstract
According to surveys carried out in Belgium, the key values for today's youth are personal achievement, love, professional success, and freedom. Juveniles learn their values not only through a retrosocialization process within the family, but also through a horizontal socialization process in which the cultural values promoted by the family, school, and media are discussed and absorbed in peer groups. While the starting point for civil law has been unlimited parental authority, in penal law, parental authority could be removed as part of the punishment for child sexual abuse as early as 1810. The landmark Carton de Wiart Act of 1912 became one of the masterpieces of the Social Defense movement; the legislation removed parental authority, dealt with juvenile delinquents, and used penal law to protect children. The current law, which followed in 1965, extended the children's judge's competence, established a team work approach to observation of the juvenile, and gave the public prosecutor discretion in arranging family and child services. Today, the trend is to discuss new balanced systems to fit the needs of Belgium and its cultural communities and to find programs that best meet the interests of the State and the child. 12 tables, 1 figure, and 84 references