Theoretical and Practical Challenges to Stop Recidivism Among Juveniles: Three Cases Studies of Male Juveniles in Karachi, Pakistan

In Pakistan, research (within academia and outside of it) lacks discussion and analysis of the policy, legal, administrative, institutional issues, challenges and barriers in addressing recidivism among juveniles. Therefore, this article’s primary aim is to understand the different factors that prevent children from recidivism; or instead, they contribute to juveniles’ developing tendency to re-offend. Three children between 15 to 18 years of age were interviewed at the superintendent of the Youthful Offender Industrial School (YOIS) in Karachi; also, an interview was conducted with the Director Reclamation and Probation, Sindh. The findings reveal that partial legal and institutional provisions and arrangements exist to address recidivism. However, these provisions are not implemented to stop children from re-offending. The analysis also shows that detention exists, but they did not have rehabilitation programmes, whereas community-based rehabilitation did not exist. Instead, these places (institutions and communities) educate children on how the crimes are being committed. The study’s findings suggest serious policy measures to deal with recidivism among male juveniles through diverse programmes and training and sensitisation of the police and judicial officials and the community members.

Mitigation for minors: Exploring the nuances of social constructs and legal status in structuring sentences for youthful offenders

New York State is one of only two states in the nation that processes all 16- and 17-year-old defendants as adults. Contrary to this seemingly punitive stance, the state also maintains a Youthful Offender Statute that requires mitigated punishments for youths up to their 19th birthday upon court designation of youthful offender status. This study empirically examines the individual and combined impact of the social status of being a “minor” and the legally awarded status of being designated a youthful offender, upon adult court sentencing decisions framing the discussion within broader conceptualizations of youthfulness, culpability, and punishment. Utilizing a population of all youths ages 16–21 whose cases were disposed in New York between 2000 and 2006, this study finds the legally defined status of youthful offender to provide much greater mitigation at sentencing than the more general social status of being a minor. Findings are discussed as they relate to categorical and individualized assessments of culpability. In addition, as the study finds individualized assessments of culpability to be related to factors such as gender and race, broader implications for the role of court assigned statuses and mitigation of punishment are offered.

The Child at Risk: The Case for the Youthful Offender

Several years ago in a conversation among young people in jail, a boy of seventeen recounted a chilling tale of murder. Late on a hot, still, Friday evening in the middle of summer, a large group of kids had gathered at a basketball court not far from the local middle school. Most of the kids knew each other, but there were some there who were “outsiders,” as it were. Suddenly, without any warning, this seventeen-year-old boy pulls a gun and fires two bullets into the head of a twelve-year-old whose name he does not know. “I was just standing there, talking to my friends, figuring out what we were going do that night, right, when I see this kid, kind of over my shoulder, you know, and I notice he's standing on my shadow. There's this long black shadow, you know, you couldn't miss it, everybody could see it, and he's standing on it. So I tell him, ‘Would you mind getting off my shadow.‘ The kid doesn't move. I don't know if he doesn't hear or he hears me and he doesn't care. So I tell him again, loud, ‘Would you get off my shadow.’ This time he's just looking at me, but he still doesn't move. Third time. ‘Hey, man, get off my shadow.’ The kid just looks at me. So, I did it. I warned him three times, right, and I shot him.”