Material for a 5-hour lesson, part of the 20-week Basic Training Course, developed by the Kosovo Police Service School.
The Juvenile Justice Code compliments and extends the general provisions of the Provisional Criminal Procedure Code of Kosovo regarding events having to do with juvenile offenders of criminal offences.
There are three basic principles that run throughout the new Juvenile Law.
Firstly, all authorities involved in the investigation of crime and prosecution of offenders are bound by a duty to deal with minors expeditiously and in the shortest possible time.
Secondly, minors must be treated with very special care, observing their rights as vulnerable persons.
Thirdly, all efforts should be made to divert minors from custodial sentences and imprisonment (or deprivation of liberty) should only be used as a last resort.
The new Code provides a wide range of non-custodial sentences or ‘diversion measures’ that promote the educational and psychological welfare of the young offender.
Any police response to this problem must be broad and comprehensive, as well as a flexible, when resolving cases of crimes committed by juveniles. Each police officer must adopt this specialist approach to juveniles, carefully considering all the available options in each case.
The purpose of this lesson is to familiarise students with specific criminal justice procedures that should be followed where the arrest and/or detention of a juvenile is appropriate. The lesson also provides options available to officers when resolving juvenile crime issues, taking into consideration legal provisions of Juvenile Justice Code of Kosovo, which became applicable on April 20th 2004.
At the conclusion of this lesson, the student will be able to: