The Research on Status Offenders in Taiwanese Juvenile Justice--Compared with Japanese Law

A status offender refers to a juvenile who has yet to commit an act that is in violation of the criminal law but somehow has so strong a tendency to commit such an act that the state has found it necessary to give protection. Nevertheless, status offense is, in fact, simply deviant or unhealthy behavior appearing in the course of a young man’s growth. Always debatable in the history of the world’s legal systems is whether the judicial system should ever get involved. The enactment of the R.O.C. Juvenile Proceeding Act follows the post-war Japanese juvenile laws, which combines both the aspects of criminal law and welfare law. Not only does it have jurisdiction over juveniles who violate criminal laws, but it also exercise authority over status offenders who are likely to commit acts that are in violation of criminal laws.
Despite the issuance of J.Y. Interpretation No. 664 by the Judicial Yuan on July 31, 2009, which reasoned that the provisions of the Juvenile Proceeding Act regarding the status offenses are the kind of protective system established by the lawmakers after taking into account all relevant factors to safeguard and preserve a healthy self-growing environment for status offenders between the ages of 12 and 18, thus acknowledging the constitutionality of the judicial intervention in status offense, it finds it unconstitutional for the existing Juvenile Proceeding Act to impose restrictions on the personal freedom of those status offenders who rum away from school or home on the ground of its inconsistency with the principle of proportionality embodied in Article 23 of the Constitution. The view adopted by said interpretation on the limitation of protective measures has worked deeply into the existing practice regarding the status offenders who play truant—sharply reducing the bulk of school- or home-dodging juvenile cases transferring to the courts from 50% in the past to a mere 14.6%.
In light of the above, this research sets out to analyze the relevant provisions and practices of the status offender systems in various periods and to collate, compile statistics and prove into the number of various types of status offenders and their treatments, in an attempt to grasp the status quo of the treatment of status offenders in practice. Also subject to review is the influence of J.Y. Interpretation No. 664 on the judicial practice. Furthermore, the operation of the Juvenile Act of Japan is studied so we may borrow its experience in attempting to propose a feasible approach in forming legislative policies to seek appropriate references in amending the existing laws, hence establishing a status offender system that may suit the R.O.C.’s juvenile justice.