In the past two decades ‘decarceration’ and
‘deinstitutionalisation’ have
been key themes of youth justice in the West. Restrictions have been
imposed on the courts, limiting their ability to hand out residential and
custodial training sentences to young offenders. As an alternative,
resources have been redirected into the development and expansion of
community-based rehabilitation programmes. However, in Hong Kong
large numbers of young offenders continue to be placed in residential and
custodial institutions after very brief criminal careers, and for crimes
which do not pose a serious risk to the community. This article makes use
of a recently published research study to discuss the experiences of young
male offenders in the Hong Kong youth justice system, and to consider
why community-based rehabilitative programmes as direct alternatives
to residential training and custody have been slow to develop. It then goes
on to explore how from a cultural perspective the use of community-based
programmes might be justified and how they could be developed
around existing sentencing guidelines.
Happy Family Kitchen: Behavioral Outcomes of a Brief Community-Based Family Intervention in Hong Kong