Evaluation of sanctions applied in the juvenile criminal justice within the framework of restorative justice

It is almost entirely agreed upon that crimes committed by children should not be treated in the same way as crimes committed by adults. On the other hand, it has been accepted for many years that imprisonment is not an effective tool in fight against crime. However, in our criminal justice system, even children who commit a crime for the first time and whose crime does not contain violence can still be sentenced to imprisonment. Aside from being sentenced to any kind of punishment, even entering the official criminal justice system can have negative effects on the children. For this reason, the applicability of restorative justice in juvenile justice system has been discussed in our thesis. In order to demonstrate that restorative justice practices instead of current criminal justice would be more appropriate in terms of reaction to juvenile delinquency: In the first part, the factors affecting juvenile delinquency are studied, and juvenile delinquency statistics of our country are shared to reveal that the crimes frequently committed by children are crimes that can be treated with restorative justice. On the other hand, fundamental information was given about the restorative justice paradigm. In the second part, the sanctions in the Turkish criminal law which applied about children who commit a crime are explained. In the third part, the restorative justice programs applied in comparative law and the sanctions applied at the end of these programs are mentioned. Again, in the third section, suggestions are made regarding the regulations that can be made within the framework of restorative justice in our juvenile criminal justice system.