Juvenile Justice: History, Transformation, Prospects of Development

Juvenile justice is the unique institution that has a large variety of models. Juvenile justice is the justice administration, however not all justice administration for cases of minors is juvenile justice. This paper examines the reasons for this delimitation, the history of juvenile justice, problems and prospects of development. This study focuses on varied approaches to the legal concept of «minors» and definition of «juvenile delinquency» in different countries. This work is concentrated on benchmarking study of rehabilitative, punitive and restorative dimensions of juvenile justice. The study explores foreign practices. So, models and approaches to juvenile justice (diversion, social worker, evidence-based) in the USA, Canadian legislative practices, juvenile justice in Latin America and mediation by the parties in German were analyzed at this paper. Moreover this study explains the background of current situation of the Russian’s justice administration for cases of minors. This paper analyzes Russian’s juvenile delinquency legislation as well as draft legislation. Finally, the work is focuses on restorative juvenile justice in Russia, position of these practices in the system of criminal justice. As a result of this study some testimonial about legislative improvement were offered.