Between development and protection: Judicial narratives and youth sexual offence adjudication in Vietnam

This article examines how Vietnamese courts adjudicate sexual offences involving juvenile defendants under a strict liability regime governing sexual acts with children under 13. Drawing on qualitative analysis of 86 judicial decisions, it identifies recurring narrative patterns through which courts construct relationships, interpret adolescent conduct, and produce victimhood. The analysis shows that judicial reasoning systematically reintroduces developmental and relational context into a legal framework that formally excludes consent, while representations of victim innocence sustain the law’s protective logic. References to remorse position sentencing as pedagogical rather than purely punitive. The article argues that adjudication operates as a site of mediation in which rigid legal classification is applied through interpretive practices that partially accommodate developmental realities without altering doctrinal boundaries. In doing so, it demonstrates how tensions between strict liability and developmental interpretation are managed through narrative reasoning in the absence of structural differentiation.