Juvenile Justice in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong: Historical and Modern Perspectives

The 19th century saw the introduction of numerous acts in the United Kingdom relating to juvenile justice that emphasised rehabilitation and sought to protect the rights of child offenders. Since then, legislative and institutional changes have generally increased the leniency of the law towards acts of juvenile delinquency, but exceptional cases involving child killers have raised jurisprudential concerns relating to these acts. This paper explores the question of punishment in criminal law from the Victorian era onward, focusing on the disparity in treatment between juvenile and adult offenders, and summarises the relevant extant U.K. and Hong Kong legislation. The case of Sharon Carr, a woman convicted of murder for a thrill stabbing she had committed at age 12, is examined with a comparative approach with the judgement of Mary Bell, who was convicted of manslaughter for strangling two toddler boys. A conclusion on the evolution of the juvenile justice system through jurisprudential perspectives will be offered.