Community corrections and the experiences of young male offenders in the Hong Kong youth justice system

In the past two decades 'decarceration' and 'deinstitutionalisation ' have been key themes of youth justice in the West. Restrictions have been impose d on the courts, Limiting their ability to hand out residential and custodi al training sentences to young offenders. As an alternative, resources have been redirected into the development and expansion of community-based reha bilitation programmes. However, in Hong Kong large numbers of young offende rs continue to be placed in residential and custodial institutions after ve ry brief criminal careers, and for crimes which do not pose a serious risk to the community. This article makes use of a recently published research s tudy to discuss the experiences of young male offenders in the Hong Kong yo uth justice system, and to consider why community-based rehabilitative prog rammes as direct alternatives to residential training and custody have been slow to develop. It then goes on to explore how from a cultural perspectiv e the use of community-based programmes might be justified and how they cou ld be developed around existing sentencing guidelines.