Experiences of individuals pushed to crime in childhood period towards the juvenile justice system

According to the Turkish Criminal Law, juveniles between the ages of 12 and 18 violate the regulations specified in laws are defined as "Juvenile Delinquent" and different enforcements and legal actions are taken against them in comparison to adults. These legal actions, defined as the juvenile justice system, initiate with the police enforcement, and continue with prosecution office, court, execution and probation phases. The main purpose of the enforcement at each stage is to ensure that a child is reintegrated into the society by preventing the juvenile's criminal behavior and the risks that cause criminal behavior. Therefore, understanding of what the experiences of juveniles, who go through all these processes in the juvenile justice system and face with different enforcements and actions at each stage as juvenile delinquents, gains importance. In accordance with this aim, a qualitative study was carried out with 30 adults who had been subjected to judicial and legal actions due to their criminal acts as juvenile delinquents, by using a semi-structured interview form and face to face interviews. Their definition of the process of pushed into crime, their experiences after their families and social environment aware of their situation, changes in their lives, experiences in judicial processes, factors that ease and complicates these processes, and their recommendations regarding the juvenile justice system have been taken into consideration in this study. Codes and themes were created from the data by using MAXQDA Analytics Pro 2020 software, and all categories were discussed through an inductive content analysis. It is thought that the experiences reached within the scope of this research will contribute to the services that will be got by juvenile delinquents, evaluation of the juvenile justice system and determination of requirements, review of the legislation and existing practices and determination of, judicial social service practices and respective social policies. Keywords: Juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice system, juvenile delinquents