EDITORIALJuvenile law needs urgent review, amendmentBy The Manila Timeshome/Opinion/Editorial/Juvenile law needs urgent review, amendmentThe nation’s Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 is in dire need of a review, not only because President Rodrigo Duterte has raised the issue many times in defending the administration’s war on illegal drugs, but because the public clamor for it is growing. The more productive approach is to seek full guidance and understanding from (1) the status and trends in our juvenile justice system; (2) the effects of the law on the level of juvenile delinquency in the country since its promulgation; and (3) the degree of conformity and modernity of our juvenile justice law with the contemporary trends and developments in juvenile justice administration. It may be that the present law errs on the side of leniency toward juvenile offenders because of the huge number of youth in our society. Juvenile justice is currently one of the major areas of study and specialization in the science of criminal justice. We legally separate adult and juvenile offenders in order to allow the state to take control of the lives of the young and the needy, though not necessarily criminal, offenders.

Source: Manila Times November 13, 2018 16:30 UTC