DEBATES ON ADOLESCENT LAW-BREAKING AND JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEMS IN LATIN AMERICA
As a platform for sharing recent research on adolescent offending under criminal law and specialized juvenile justice, this panel proposes to address the latest advances and research findings on the subject.
New regulatory provisions and institutional configurations show that, once again, attention to juvenile criminal justice appears to be expanding forms of control and restorative agreements—rhetorically and with scarce alternatives—rather than becoming genuine opportunities for adolescents who break the criminal law. This clear regressive signal seems to be grounded in the recurring illusion that punishing more harshly, through increased sentences and deprivation of liberty, would constitute appropriate measures for addressing adolescent offending. In order to problematize this spirit of the times regarding the treatment of adolescent offending, the panel is conceived as a space for dialogue that counters common places and repeated dichotomous discourses. Papers addressing some of the following topics are invited:
* Legal reforms and the juvenile justice system
* Punishment and the juvenile justice system: confinement and non-custodial measures
* Adolescent offending and gender perspective
* Ethnic-racial issues in police apprehension and the juvenile justice system
* Processes of selectivity in the juvenile justice system
* Adolescent offending and sociocultural transformations
* Crimes against sexual integrity: adolescents as offenders and victims
* Criminal proceedings and restorative justice
* Juvenile criminal justice in historical perspective
* Professional practices within the juvenile justice system
* Diagnoses, therapies and desistance strategies within the juvenile justice system
