Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T02:52:52.793Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Cultural Context of Juvenile Justice Policy in Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

MIMI AJZENSTADT  and
MONA KHOURY-KASSABRI
MIMI AJZENSTADT*
Affiliation:
School of Social Work and Social Welfare, and Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel.
MONA KHOURY-KASSABRI
Affiliation:
School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel email: msmona@mscc.huji.ac.il
*
email: mimi@mscc.huji.ac.il
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The paper explores the evolution of rehabilitative, rights and economic discourses, and their effect on the development of juvenile justice policies in Israel during the last two decades. Israel has adopted the main features of a neo-liberal regime and severe cuts were made to major social welfare programmes, including those dealing with juvenile offenders. However, the neo-liberal ideas of individualisation and responsibilisation did not penetrate the area of juvenile delinquency. A renewed welfarist discourse in Israel was created instead. This strongly relied on traditional beliefs in rehabilitation and treatment based on a child-centred culture, incorporating concepts of rights and embedded in practical economic considerations.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 111 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, J. (1999), ‘Culture in rational-choice theories of state-formation’, in Steinmetz, G. (ed.), State/Culture: State Formation after the Cultural Turn, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 98–122.Google Scholar
Ajzenstadt, M. (2002), ‘Crime, social control and the process of social classification: juvenile delinquency/justice discourse in Israel, 1948–1970’, Social Problems, 49: 4, 585–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ajzenstadt, M. (2005), ‘Reactions to juvenile delinquency in Israel, 1950–1970: a social narrative’, Journal of Policy History, 17: 4, 404–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ajzenstadt, M. and Rosenhek, Z. (2000), ‘Privatization and new modes of state intervention: the long-term care program in Israel’, Journal of Social Policy, 29: 2, 247–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Almog-Bar, M. and Ajzenstadt, M. (2010), ‘Women, welfare and civil society organizations: creating an alternative women's welfare sphere in Israel’, Social Policy and Administration, 44: 6, 673–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Almog-Bar, M. and Gidron, B. (2009), ‘The long journey to the promised land: policy initiatives towards the third sector in Israel’, in Gidron, B. and Bar, M. (eds.), Policy Initiatives Towards the Third Sector in International Perspective, New York: Springer, pp. 159–88.Google Scholar
Bala, N. and Roberts, J. V. (2006), ‘Canada's juvenile justice system: promoting community-based responses to youth crime’, in Junger-Tas, J. and Decker, S. H. (eds.), International Handbook of Juvenile Justice, Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 37–64.Google Scholar
Béland, D. (2009), ‘Ideas, institutions and policy change’, Journal of European Public Policy, 16: 5, 701–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Arieh, A. and Kimchi, M. (2007), ‘The childrens’ rights revolution and the social services in Israel’, in Aviram, U., Gal, J. and Katan, Y. (eds.), Social Policy in Israel, Jerusalem: The Taub Center for Social Policy, pp. 309–338 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Bishop, D. M. (2009), ‘Juvenile transfer in the United States in reforming juvenile justice’, in Dünkel, F. and Junger-Tas, J. (eds.), International Handbook of Juvenile Justice, Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 85–104.Google Scholar
Bishop, D. M. and Decker, S. H. (2006), ‘Punishment and control: Juvenile justice reform in the USA’, in Junger-Tas, J. and Decker, S. H. (eds.), International Handbook of Juvenile Justice, Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 3–35.Google Scholar
Borowski, A. and Ajzenstadt, M. (2005), ‘A solution without a problem: judges’ perspectives on the impact of the introduction of public defenders on Israel's juvenile courts’, British Journal of Criminology, 45: 2, 183–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, J. L. (1998), ‘Institutional analysis and the role of ideas in political economy’, Theory and Society, 27: 377–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, J. and Newman, J. (1997), The Managerial State, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Cohen, N., Mizrachi, S. and Yuval, F. (2010), ‘The welfare state, public policy and public opinion: Israel 2008’, Social Security, 82: 47–77.Google Scholar
Croall, H. (2006), ‘Criminal justice in post-devolutionary Scotland’, Critical Social Policy, 26: 3, 587–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cullen, T. F. and Agnew, R. (2005), Juvenile Delinquency: Causes and Control (2nd edn), Los Angeles: Roxbury.Google Scholar
Dorfman, L. and Schiraldi, V. (2001), Off Balance: Youth, Race, and Crime in the News, Washington, DC: Berkeley Media Studies Group, Public Health Institute and Justice Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Fagan, J. (1990), ‘Social and legal policy dimensions of violent juvenile crime’, Criminal Justice and Behavior, 17: 93–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairclough, N. (1992), ‘Discourse and text: linguistic and intertextual analysis within discourse analysis’, Discourse Society, 3: 2, 193–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feld, B. C. (1993), ‘Juvenile (in)justice and the criminal court alternative’, Crime and Delinquency, 39: 403–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fergusson, R. (2007), ‘Making sense of the melting pot: multiple discourses in youth justice policy’, Youth Justice, 73: 3, 179–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, S. (2007), ‘Practice cultures and the ‘new’ youth justice in (England) and Wales’, British Journal of Criminology, 47: 311–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fogiel-Bijaoui, S. (1999), ‘Families in Israel: between familism and post-modernity’, in Izraeli, D. N., Friedman, A., Dahan-Kalev, H., Fogiel-Bijaoui, S., Herzog, H., Hasan, N. and Naveh, H. (eds.), Sex, Gender, Politics: Women in Israel, Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, pp. 107–66 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Gal, J. (2008), ‘Immigration and the categorical welfare state in Israel’, Social Service Review, 82: 4, 639–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldson, B. and Jamieson, J. (2002), ‘Youth crime, the “parenting deficit” and state intervention: a contextual critique’, Youth Justice, 2: 2, 82–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldson, B. and Hughes, G. (2010), ‘Sociological criminology and youth justice: comparative policy analysis and academic intervention’, Criminology and Criminal Justice, 10: 2, 211–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Government of Israel (2005), ‘Violence phenomenon in the Israeli society’, Government decision no. 3687, 6 May 2005. http://www.pmo.gov.il/Secretary/GovDecisions/2005/Pages/des3687.aspx (Hebrew) (accessed 30 April 2010).Google Scholar
Graham, J. and Moore, C. (2006), ‘Beyond welfare versus justice: juvenile justice in England and Wales’, in Junger-Tas, J. and Decker, S. H. (eds.), International Handbook of Juvenile Justice, Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 65–92.Google Scholar
Hall, P. A. (1993), ‘Policy paradigms, social learning and the state: the case of economic policymaking in Britain’, Comparative Politics, 25: 3, 275–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogeveen, B. R. (2006), ‘Unsettling youth justice and cultural norms: the youth restorative action project’, Journal of Youth Justice, 9: 1, 47–66.Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. F. and Shannon, S. (2005), ‘Three approaches to qualitative content analysis’, Qualitative Health Research, 15: 1277–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ivry, T. (2010), Embodying Culture: Pregnancy in Japan and Israel, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Israel, Committee for Children's Rights (18.2.2004) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Israel, Constitution, Law and Justice Committee (21.11.2007), Protocol No. 351 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Israel, Constitution, Law and Justice Committee (13.7.2008), Protocol No. 607 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Israel, Constitution, Law and Justice Committee (1.4.2008), Protocol No. 521 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Israel, The Labor, Welfare and Health Committee (7.6.2011), Israeli Parliament (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Israel, The State Comptroller (2001), Annual Report 51B of 2000 and of the Fiscal Year of 1999, Jerusalem: The State Comptroller office (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Israel, The State Comptroller (2008), Annual Report 58B of 2007 and of the Fiscal Year of 2006, Jerusalem: The State Comptroller office (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Jaffe, E. D. (1982), Child welfare in Israel, New York: Praegar.Google Scholar
Jaffe, E. D. (1993), ‘Sociological and religious origins of the non-profit sector in Israel’, International Sociology, 8: 2, 159–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Junger-Tas, J. and Decker, S. H. (2006), International Handbook of Juvenile Justice, Dordrecht: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, I., Abu-Baber, K. and Sa'ar, A. (2012), Arabic Society in Israel: Social Fabric, Ethnicity, Family, Gender, The Open University of Israel.Google Scholar
Kempf-Leonard, K. and Peterson, E. (2000), ‘Expanding the realms of the new penology: the advent of actuarial justice for juveniles’, Punishment and Society, 2:1, 66–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemshall, H. (2008), ‘Risk, rights, and justice: understanding and responding to youth risk’, Youth Justice, 8:1, 21–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krippendorff, K. (1980), Content Analysis, Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Levesque, R. J. R. (1996), ‘Is there still a place for violent youth in juvenile justice’, Aggressive and Violent Behavior, 1: 69–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinson, R. (1974), ‘What works? Questions and answers about prison reform’, The Public Interest: 22–54.Google Scholar
Melossi, D. (2000), ‘Changing representations of the criminal’, British Journal of Criminology, 40: 296–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meranda, A. (2007), ‘Youth violence: what do KMs want to do?’, 2 August, http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3432462,00.html (accessed 26 April 2010).Google Scholar
Muncie, J. (2005), ‘The globalization of crime control – the case of youth and juvenile justice: neo-Liberalism, policy convergence and international conventions’, Theoretical Criminology, 9: 1, 35–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muncie, J. (2006), ‘Governing young people: coherence and contradiction in contemporary youth justice’, Critical Social Policy, 26: 770–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muncie, J. (2008), ‘The “punitive turn” in juvenile justice: cultures of control and rights compliance in Western Europe and USA’, Youth Justice, 8: 107–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelken, D. (2006). ‘Italian juvenile justice: tolerance, leniency or indulgence?’, Youth Justice, 6: 2, 107–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, J. S. and Robinson, G. (2008), ‘Liberalism, citizenship and the welfare state’, in Van Oorschot, W., Opielka, M. and Pfau-Effinger, B. (eds.), Culture and the Welfare State, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 29–49.Google Scholar
O'Malley, P. (1999), ‘Volatile and contradictory punishment’, Theoretical Criminology, 3: 2, 175–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborne, D. and Gaebler, T. (1992), Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Padamsee, T. J. (2009), ‘Culture in connection: re-contextualizing ideational processes in the analysis of policy development’, Social Politics, 16: 4, 413–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patton, M. Q. (2002), Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods (3rd edn), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Pfau-Effinger, B. (2005), ‘Culture and welfare state policies: reflections on a complex interrelation’, Journal of Social Politics, 34: 1, 3–20.Google Scholar
Pugach, D. (2010), ‘Do not tilt kindness to juvenile delinquents’, 10 March, http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3856785,00.html (accessed 23 March 2012).Google Scholar
Razi, T. (2009), Forsaken Children: The backyard of Mandate Tel-Aviv, Tel-Aviv: Am Oved (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Rein, M. and Schön, D. (1993), ‘Reframing policy discourse’, in Fischer, F. and Forester, J. (eds.), The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning, Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 145–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remennick, L. I. (2000), ‘Childless in the land of imperative motherhood: stigma and coping among infertile Israeli women’, Sex Roles: 43, 821–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remennick, L. I. (2008), ‘Contested motherhood in the ethnic state voices from an Israeli postpartum ward’, Ethnicities, 8: 2, 199–226CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, N. and Miller, P. (1992), ‘Political power beyond the state: problematics of Government’, British Journal of Sociology, 43: 2, 173–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, G. W. and Bernard, H. R. (2000), ‘Data management and analysis methods’, in Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 769–802.Google Scholar
Sabatier, P. A. (1993), ‘The study of public policy processes’, in Sabatier, P. A. and Jenkins-Smith, H. C. (eds.), Policy Change and Learning: An Advocacy Coalition Framework, Boulder, CO: Westview, pp. 1–12.Google Scholar
Schmidt, H. (2006), Report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Juvenile in Distress (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Schmidt, V. A. (2002), ‘Does discourse matter in the politics of welfare state adjustment’, Comparative Political Studies, 35: 2, 168–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, V. A. and Radaelli, C. M. (2004), ‘Policy change and discourse in Europe: conceptual and methodological issues’, West European Politics, 27: 2, 183–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shalev, M. (2000), ‘Liberalization and the transformation of the political economy’, in Shafir, G. and Peled, Y. (eds.), The New Israel: Peacemaking and Liberalization, Boulder, CO: Westview, pp. 129–59.Google Scholar
Shilo, M. (2007), The Gender Challenge: Women in the First Immigration Waves, Tel-Aviv: The Kibbutz Hameuhad (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Simon, J. (1990), Poor Discipline: Parole and the Social Control of the Underclass, 1890–1990, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Simons, L. and Lathlean, J. (2008), ‘Shifting the focus: sequential methods of analysis with qualitative data’, Qualitative Health Research, 18: 1, 120–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steinmetz, G. (1993), Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany, Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoesz, D. (1981), ‘A wake for the welfare state: social welfare and the neoconservative challenge’, Social Service Review, 55: 3, 398–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, D. (1997), Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making, New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Such, E. and Walker, R. (2005), ‘Young citizens or policy objects? Children in the “rights and responsibilities” debates’, Journal of Social Policy, 34: 1, 39–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torfing, J. (1999), New Theories of Discourse: Laclau, Mouffe and Zizek, Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Weijers, I. (1999), ‘The double paradox of juvenile delinquency’, European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 7: 3, 329–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yishai, Y. (1998), ‘Civil Society in transition: interest politics in Israel’, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 555: 1, 147–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar