Evaluation of juvenile criminal proceedings from the children rights perspective

As children have not yet completed their development, they should be subject to a differentiated and separate justice system. The research aims to investigate whether legislation and practice regarding juvenile criminal proceedings are inconsistent with children's rights; to explain how the subjects perceive the trial process and how it affects their lives; and to identify the experiences and recommendations of adults, experts, and lawyers who have been tried as children. A review of the literature shows that there is a paucity of research on children's experiences of criminal proceedings, with most studies focusing on the reasons for involvement and perceptions of crime. In this study, qualitative interviews were conducted with people over the age of 18 who had been investigated and prosecuted as children involved in crime, as well as with lawyers and experts involved in juvenile criminal proceedings. The results were analyzed using a content analysis method and practice contrary to the best interests of the child, the child's right to life and development, and the child's right to participation in the investigation and prosecution of children involved in the crime were identified. As a result of these practices, it was observed that the participants' involvement in the justice system led them to be exposed to different criminal environments and negatively affected their family and peer relations, education, business life, and relations with the state and the law. They were also found to feel stigmatized, hopeless, guilty, ashamed, confused, and sad as a result of their involvement in the justice system, to have developed a belief that they had missed out on their childhood, and to have anxious uncertainty about the future. At the end of the study, recommendations for juvenile criminal proceedings are presented to serve a child-friendly juvenile justice system.