The Impact of Court Decisions on the Recidivism of Juvenile Offenders

Natalia Khmelevska1, Igor Kopotun2, Valentyna Hrankina3, Volodymyr Hospodarenko4 & Ivo Svoboda5

https://doi.org/10.62271/pjc.16.3.963.978

Abstract
The influence of judicial verdicts on juvenile offenders’ recidivism is critical to understanding the effectiveness of justice and identifying strategies for further improving criminal justice. The effectiveness of court decisions directly affects the relapse into criminal behaviour of this vulnerable category of offenders. The objective of the paper is to examine the effects of court decisions on the recidivism rate among minors. The article reveals that court decisions, ensured by the rule of law and a fair judicial process aimed at rehabilitation and social adaptation, significantly reduce the risk of a relapse into criminal behaviour. The obtained result of the correlation analysis of 0.4660 indicates a stable relationship between the effectiveness of the legal system and the potential threat of recidivism of juvenile offenders. The interpretation of the results reveals the high efficiency of integrated approaches in the judicial system in processing juvenile cases in EU countries.

Keywords: court decisions, recidivism, juvenile offenders, justice, rehabilitation, social adaptation, criminal justice.