Press Release No. G/10/00
13 March 2000
Bangkok (United Nations Information Services) -- A Regional Seminar on Assessment and Classification of Adult Offenders and Juvenile Delinquents is being convened by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) at the United Nations Conference Centre, from 13-15 March 2000. The Seminar is part of a project on assessment and classification of adult and juvenile offenders being implemented by ESCAP with the funding support of the Government of Japan.
The Seminar aims to provide a forum for an exchange of information, views and experiences, to identify major issues related to the assessment and classification of offenders and to recommend policy measures to address the issues at the national and regional levels.
The Seminar is expected to promote further understanding of the subject and identify research and technical assistance needs in the field with the view to formulating a draft training programme for staff and officials engaged in the assessment and classification of offenders.
The Regional Seminar on Assessment and Classification of Adult Offenders and Juvenile Delinquents is aimed at strengthening integrated policies and programmes for crime and juvenile delinquency prevention and treatment, with emphasis on the assessment and classification of incarcerated criminal offenders and juvenile delinquents. The Seminar will generate better understanding and social reintegration of the young persons who come into conflict with the law in the Asian and Pacific region's developing countries. It will contribute towards preventing the growth and spread of crime and juvenile delinquency and, by reducing the number of repeat offenders, will reduce the number of prospective victims.
Government officials, nongovernmental organizations and academics concerned with adult offenders and juvenile delinquents from Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vanuatu as well as representatives of the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI), United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), and the Asia Crime Prevention Foundation (ACPF) are attending the Seminar.
Crime and juvenile delinquency are serious social issues in the developing countries in the Asian and Pacific region. The effects of poverty, rising unemployment, rapid and unplanned urbanization and family breakdown in these countries provide an environment conducive to juvenile delinquency and criminal behaviour. Furthermore, the introduction of new lifestyles and values challenges traditional behavioural norms, seriously affecting social constraints on crime and juvenile delinquency. Thus, strained family relationships, lack of parental supervision and control, as well as the absence of role models within the family, contribute to the rise of crime and juvenile delinquency in the region. In turn, the same conditions favouring crime and juvenile delinquency have made difficult for the majority of this group to reintegrate into society thereby aggravating further the social problems associated with poverty and unemployment.
The Agenda for Action on Social Development in the ESCAP Region reaffirmed the conviction that crime is at root, both in its causes and effects, a social issue, and that adequate responses can be framed only within the context of comprehensive programmes for social development. In adopting the Agenda for Action, the governments agreed that, in their effort to prevent crime and juvenile delinquency, they will strengthen the community institutions, particularly those geared directly to youth, and increase youth participation in those institutions. The governments will develop for young delinquents and offenders special mechanisms to deal with them and provide them with improved economic and social rehabilitation opportunities through non-institutional, community, peer-group and family-based approaches to facilitate their reintegration into mainstream society.
At present, in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice administration, the assessment and classification of criminal offenders, adult and juvenile, prior to their treatment, is widely seen as a key to the effective management of the whole crime prevention and criminal justice system.