Peer-reviewed article
What is Left in the “Too Hard Basket”? Developments and Challenges for the Rights of Children in Conflict with the Law
Nessa Lynch, T. Liefaard ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This peer-reviewed paper reviews 30 years of developments in children's rights scholarship, with a focus on children in conflict with the law. It examines three key areas of progress: children's rights theory, developmental science, and cross-national themes including age limits, diversion, participation, and detention. The paper also identifies three significant gaps or challenges that remain unresolved in this field.
Key points
- Children's rights in relation to criminal justice systems is now an established academic discipline
- Key themes in cross-national scholarship include age limits for criminal responsibility, diversion from justice systems, effective participation of children, and deprivation of liberty
- The paper identifies three unresolved challenges left in the 'too-hard basket' for future decades
- Developmental science is highlighted as an important consideration in understanding children in conflict with the law
Limitations
The abstract provides only an overview of the paper's scope and does not detail specific findings, evidence from studies, or what the three identified challenges are. Therefore, this summary cannot specify which interventions work, how many children are affected, or concrete policy recommendations.
Abstract
The 30 years since the enactment of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has seen extensive developments in the theory and practice of children’s rights. Children’s rights are now an established academic discipline with the study of children in conflict with the law being a fundamental area of analysis. This paper takes the approach of highlighting three areas of development of children’s rights scholarship in relation to the criminal justice system: children’s rights, developmental science and notable themes emerging from cross-national scholarship, including age limits, diversion, effective participation and deprivation of liberty. In addition, it analyses three gaps or challenges which are “left in the too-hard basket” for the coming decades.