Abstract

Juvenile justice in South America has since its origin been part of child protection services. Only during the last 13 years have most South American countries incorporated, to varying degrees, a specialized juvenile justice system into their legal systems. The challenge of adopting international standards for protecting children has been a central reason for improving the services under a rights perspective. However, the transition has been slow, mainly because of the legacy of past causal theories to explain children's and families' difficulties, namely, medical models and functionalism. Today, South American governments have declared a commitment to the constitutions and international agreements that frame juvenile justice; however, this imposes on them both an obligation to ensure that children's rights are respected by creating appropriate institutional structures, as well as a duty to develop mechanisms to monitor and guarantee the rights of the children. This is an ongoing challenge.