Evaluation of Adolescent Criminal Law

Introduction

ACL concerns juvenile suspects and offenders in the age range of 16 to 23 years old, which is the age range that is most overrepresented in crime (statistics). A key goal of ACL is the flexible application of juvenile and adult criminal law in criminal cases against individuals around 18 years old. ACL emphasizes that the developmental age of the suspect or offender should be key in deciding whether juvenile or adult criminal law should be applied, instead of chronological age. One of the primary changes that ACL brought is that the age under which young adults could be tried according to juvenile criminal law was extended up to 23 years old (as stipulated in article 77c of the Dutch Criminal Code). Though its name does suggest it, ACL is not a separate criminal law system. One of the intensions of ACL is to reduce recidivism in young adult offenders and to protect them from a life of crime.

ACL and the Criminal Justice Chain

Various parties and organizations in the criminal justice chain are involved in the practical application of ACL. In the pre-trial advisory phase, the Dutch Probation Service (DPS), the Council for Child Protection and the Dutch Institute of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology provide counsel on what criminal law system is best suited for a young suspect. The Public Prosecution Service can subsequently claim whether juvenile or adult criminal law should be followed in the proceedings of the criminal case. However, a judge will ultimately decide which of the two criminal law systems will be followed. Lastly, in the practical execution of a sentence, both the Custodial Institutions Agency and the DPS are tasked with ensuring that a young offender will receive the treatment and help he or she needs to stay out of a life of crime.

Monitoring and evaluation

To monitor and evaluate the practical application of ACL, the research programme MEACL was initiated. The research programme runs from 2014 through 2019, and the focus of the programme is the application of juvenile criminal law in criminal cases against young adults up to 23 years old. The primary purpose of the programme is to monitor developments in the application of juvenile and adult criminal law in cases against, respectively, young adults and minors.

Though the programme has its own publications, some aspects of ACL are also reported on in the Juvenile Crime Monitor (JCM) and the Recidivism Monitor (RM), both part of the WODC. The JCM is a biyearly report on developments in (registered) juvenile crime in the Netherlands, and examines trends in juvenile suspects, sentenced offenders and sanctions. The RM provides recidivism rates for various judicial populations, and will provide these rates for young adults with juvenile sanctions in the near future.

The research programme MEACL has beem completed with a synthesis report of the monitoring and evaluation reports within the MEACL programme. These reports, together, have cleaedr whether or not the goals of implementing ACL are being met, both in output and outcomes. 
The purpose of this synthesis was to provide an integrated overview of the MEACL research programme and its results, and focussed on successes of ACL regarding the application of juvenile criminal law in criminal cases against 18- to 23-year-olds, and also on what could be improved in the future.