Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Protection
Why do juvenile delinquents commit crimes? When is the safety of children so much at risk that juvenile justice intervention is warranted? What options has a juvenile/family judge to change the behavior of juvenile delinquents or parents who are abusive or neglectful? What works and what does not work in the context of forensic child and youth care? These are central questions in the minor juvenile delinquency and youth protection.
The minor is meant for law students who consider a career in child and family law, for example as judge or prosecutor or lawyer.
However, the minor is also very well students in social sciences who consider working in youth protection or who consider treating juvenile delinquents and their families, develop prevention or intervention policies or who want to advise judges. The minor is thus strongly focused on the job market.
For developmental psychologists and pedagogics students, the minor can be seen as an excellent preparation for a mastertrack forensic child and youth care sciences or forensic developmental psychology. Nevertheless, the courses are of interest for students of other academic disciplines.
The main aim of this minor combining two disciplines is preparing a new generation of professionals, with state of the art knowledge of different disciplines. The minor has a strong link with clinical practice, with guest lectures by professionals who actually work with the children and families.
Students can provide their own accents by choosing their own topics in papers and cases. There is also room to discuss current developments in forensic child and youth care sciences.
Jessica Asscher, professor in Forensic Child and Youth Care sciences is responsible for this minor.