Young people and crime
Juvenile diversionary schemes
Introduction
The criminal justice system has a wide range of formal and informal ways of dealing with young offenders. Diversion refers to those efforts which divert young people away from more formal processing, adjudication and sanctions with the aim of reducing the stigmatisation of the young person as a delinquent and levels of recidivism. There are four basic approaches to diversion : informal warnings or cautions, formal cautions, variants of conferences and specific provisions in relation to drugs.