This publication contains the study aimed at consulting with children on the nature, extent and consequences of Child Used by Adults in the Commission of Crime (CUBAC). It presents the central findings of the study, followed by the discussion of the key issues emerging from them, and the identification of risk factors suggested by them.
This manual contains an intervention designed for a specific group of child offenders that is meant to supplement existing diversion programmes. The research undertaken with children has shown that adults often use a reward system to elicit the participation of children in crime. This intervention has been designed to provide alternatives and behavioral means for children to avoid them succumbing to such influences and committing offences. This diversion intervention represents a valuable effort to expand the programmatic responses to offending that are available in South African, in order for specific groups of children in trouble with the law.
This publication consists of background documents that are needed for the role-players. These documents are: the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; International Labour Organisation: Convention 182; United Nations General Assembly; The South African Constitution; and The Children’s Bill. Guidelines in the Criminal Justice system are specified for the following role-players: the Police; Probation Officers; Prosecutors; Magistrates; Diversion service providers and Child care workers; Legal Representatives for the child and Educators.
This manual contains two prevention programmes focusing on children used by adults or older children to commit crime. One programme is aimed at children within an educational or residential setting and seeks to help them identify situations and factors that place them at risk of adult influence to commit crime, while providing alternative behavioural methods to avoid such situations. The second programme is aimed at parents, caregivers and communities, in order to raise awareness of the phenomenon of children used by adults to commit crime and encourage the appropriate treatment of children.
This study records the results of a situation analysis and baseline study to explore the use of children by adults and older children in the commission of crimes, which has been identified as a worst form of child labour. It builds on South Africa’s commitment to address child labour, as evidenced in the constitutional protection accorded to this group of children, as well as early ratification by the South African government of ILO Convention 182 concerning the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. The implementation of ILO Convention 182 is marked by the need for the design and implementation of targeted measures to address the situation of children involved in the worst forms of child labour. This study constitutes the first step in the process of achieving that goal.
Children Used by Adults to Commit Crime: Children's Perceptions of their Use by Adults in the Commission of Offences
