6 Treatment to solve multiple/complex problems of the offenders and cooperation with relevant institutions

Delinquencies/offences committed by juveniles/young offenders derive from various problems, including dispositional problems and environmental problems at the different levels that include their family, school, workplace, and local community, etc., in a multiple/complex manner.

The problematic behavior of offenders of the special research just before the criminal conduct, in a quite few cases, varied from association with delinquent friends to gambling, debt and other problems, and in most cases these problems were combined in a complex manner. The backgrounds to the drug problems were also association with delinquent friends (Fig. 7-3-3-3-7). Treatment of those offenders seemed to require multi-dimensional approach to solve such problems connected in a multiple/complex manner.

In eliminating these multiple/complex problems, both general living guidance, which will be the basis for maintaining/developing a sound life, and special guidance, which takes into consideration their individual characteristics of the delinquencies/offenses, including guidance by problem group, special guidance on reform, drug abuse prevention education, and violence prevention program, etc.(See Chapter 5 of this part), should be balanced and implemented in a way most adequate to the individual delinquent/offender, utilizing a risk assessment tool (a method to decide upon a treatment plan through analyzing problems in each treatment field/issue, etc. and structurally evaluating the likelihood of repeat offenses).

Appropriately identifying the problems of juvenile delinquents and eliminating them at an early stage is important in preventing repeat delinquencies/offenses by juvenile/young offenders. The problems of juvenile delinquents advance through repeating delinquencies and many of them repeat offenses even after becoming adults. Family courts, as a central player of the treatment of juvenile delinquents, and relevant institutions, including the police, public prosecutors offices, juvenile classification homes, juvenile training schools, penal institutions, probation offices, child welfare institutions, such as children's self-reliance support facilities, etc., medical institutions, labour-related institutions, and various private organizations, therefore, need to closely cooperate in the respective stages of treatment from each point of view to rehabilitate each juvenile delinquent/young offender in a mutually complementing and seamless manner, utilizing social resources.