Social Background Investigations for the Children's Court
| Published date | 01 June 1976 |
| Author | Bernard C Cairns |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587600900207 |
| Date | 01 June 1976 |
AUST &NZ JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (June 1976) 9 (109-122)
SOCIAL BACKGROUND INVESTIGATIONS
FOR
THE
CHILDREN'S
COURT
109
Bernard CCairns0
The
modern
children's
court
is a manifestation of the notion that
offending
children should not be
treated
as criminals
but
instead should be rehabilitated
by
social assistance
and
guidance. In this role the
court
has
become
adispenser of
personalized justice, that is, justice to suit the needs of the
offender
rather
than
the offence. To enable the
court
to
make
orders which satisfy such a criterion,
the legislation creating the
court
has
granted
specific
power
for the
court
to
obtain quite extensive social
background
information concerning
each
defendant.
In the present article the Tasmanian system is described
and
major
statutory references will therefore
be
to the Child Welfare
Act
1960 (Tas.) as
amended.
Under
the Tasmanian
Child
Welfare
Act
it is
provided
that children
found
guilty of offences shall
not
be
treated as criminals. This is
made
clear
by
s4of
the Act; which is -a general statement of legislative policy, reinforced
by
s 15,
where
the functions of child welfare officers are described. By s 15(1) a police
officer
who
lays a complaint charging achild with an offence must inform either
achild welfare .officer or the Director of Social Welfare immediately. Section
15(2) reads as follows: "A children's court or any
other
court
of
summary
jurisdiction shall
not
pass sentence on a child, or
make
an
order
that finally
determines the proceedings in the court in
respect
of that child (other
than
an
interim
order
or an
order
remanding
the child or committing him for trial or
transferring any proceedings to another court) unless there has
been
furnished to
the
court
a
report
in writing
by
achild welfare'officer on investigations
made
by
him
into the circumstances, or unless the
court
is satisfied that reasonable
opportunity
has
been
given to a child welfare officer to
make
those
investigations
and
to
make
such
report
or give such evidence."
It is, then, virtually
mandatory
that the children's
court
receive achild welfare
officer's
report
before disposing of a complaint.
The
only cases where this is
not
necessary
are
those where the Director has advised the court in writing
that
a
report
will
not
be
submitted
or where the court considers the offence to
be
of a
trivial nature (s 15(3)).
Similar provisions are to
be
found in the corresponding legislation of
other
States
and
the United Kingdom.
For
example, in Victoria, the court is to
proceed
without regard to legal forms
and
ceremonies and. shall direct itself by the
best
evidence it can procure or is laid before it, except
that
it shall
not
find a child
guilty unless it is satisfied
beyond
reasonable doubt.
The
welfare officer's
report
must
cover
the child's antecedents, home environment, companions, education,
oLLB, LLM, Barrister-at-Law, Victoria, apractitioner of the Supreme Court of Tasmania, Lecturer
in
Law
in the Tasmanian College of Advanced 'Education, formerly a child welfare officer in
the
Department of Social Welfare, Tasmania.
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