The Irish juvenile justice framework has been and still is largely a straight adoption of the legislation in Britain. The legal framework consists of the Children's Act 1908 and the Criminal Justice (Community Service) Act 1983.

This body of law is largely founded on a "just desserts" retributive philosophy. However, within that space was afforded some welfare innovation and development.

From that framework, this State, as others, has tried to construct a kind of synthesis or compromise between the two basic principles of welfare and traditional penal punishment.

The approaches are hard to reconcile, and emphasis shifts between the two. They were brought into sharp focus in comments on the killing in Britain of a little boy, Jamie Bulger: the then prime minister, John Major, advised people "to understand a bit less, condemn a bit more".

Our 1908 Children's Act provides the menu of sanctions by which juvenile offenders can be sentenced. The sanctions comprise of sentences in the community (including probation and a range of other bonds, committal into the care of a relative or other fit person); monetary penalties (fines, damages, costs); and sentences to institutions (borstals, special schools).

Ordering a male offender to be whipped, though in disuse, remains on the statute books!

In organisational terms, juvenile justice consists of a loose network of agencies whose role is to service the respective dispositions of the court. Those agencies are the Probation and Welfare Service, special schools and prison/detention.

These agencies are, in a sense, the middle and end of the criminal justice story, but not the beginning.

The full story would open with the Garda's increasing network of extra-statutory crime-prevention and intervention schemes.

The Juvenile Liaison Scheme is an extra-statutory scheme of significance. It was introduced in the 1960s to divert young offenders from the judicial process.

The Garda are also involved in projects which aim to engage "at risk" youngsters in law-abiding activities. These projects represent a broadening from traditional law and order and are growing at a fast rate.

Far more first-time offending young people are dealt with now under such meritorious schemes than are brought into the formal court process.

However, one must ask whether our services are successful in reducing crime - and the answer is that we really don't know. We don't know where we are getting it wrong or what specific improvements to seek.

Our jurisdiction is without a wide and reliable research base from which to evaluate the system. Thanks to research on prisoners by criminologist Dr Paul O'Mahony, we are aware that the typical criminal career in Ireland is marked both by its early start and the phenomenally high rate of recidivism.

That research is suggestive of the system's depth of failure and the need to overhaul it radically. However, research on those offending young people who enter and then leave the system, not to return, could be most instructive.

The crucial group in any strategy for the prevention of crime are juvenile offenders, so we should not miss the opportunity to get things right this time. We should aim high, strive for excellence and really enquire and inform ourselves about how to achieve the maximum with our interventions into the lives of young people who offend.

Juvenile justice has to address both public safety and the needs of young people who offend. Juvenile crime is a serious category of offending: about half of all reported crime is committed by people under 21 years, the bulk of the offenders being in the 17-to-21 age group. Larcenies and public-order offences make up a large proportion of youngsters' offending.

The Irish system of juvenile justice is currently under review. We are at a point of change and there has been a welcome from all quarters for the concept of updating the legislation and services.

The Juvenile Justice Bill - euphemistically or for other reasons titled the "Children Bill" - as proposed will reform most aspects of the system. Among its provisions are:

the placing of the Garda liaison scheme inside a statutory framework and providing for a system of family conferences;

a move to child-friendly courts;

a wide range of community sanctions and penalties instead of special school sentences;

the raising of the age of criminal responsibility from seven to 10 years;

the inclusion of a "clean slate" to erase criminal convictions;

the (unacceptable) proposal to retain St Patrick's Centre of Detention for 16- to 18-year-olds.

However, this Bill was published in December 1996 and debated in the Dail in February 1997. It is now stalled at committee stage, facing up to 300 amendments.

Another development is that, simultaneously, the Minister of State at the Departments of Health and Children, Education and Science and Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Frank Fahey, has set up a Juvenile Working Group to review issues in relation to children coming before the criminal courts. Welcome as the new legal framework is, there is also a need for an organisational framework. At present, agencies, prisons, special schools and the probation services have evolved separately and pursue their separate policies, with little reference to each other.

Our system lacks the fundamental features of organisation - it has no statement of mission, policy framework or evaluation/ research base. The need for organisation is evident and that will require a structure to integrate and lead the system's many subsidiary parts.

Patrick O'Dea is press officer of the probation and welfare branch of the IMPACT union.