Halt - prevention
In The Netherlands a special justice system has been established for juveniles, recognising the special vulnerability of children and based on notions of education, reform and reintegration. Restorative elements are present in all levels of the Dutch juvenile justice system. At the prosecution and court levels these include alternative sanctions such as community service.
At the police level a unique form of diversion is offered to juvenile first offenders , who have committed certain minor offences: the Halt-procedure. Juveniles who volunteer for this procedure agree on a project that normally includes damage compensation and/or working or learning up to 20 hours. Even though the Halt-procedure is included in the Dutch penal code, it can be regarded as an alternative to the formal justice system because charges are officially dropped after a successful Halt-procedure. The juvenile never reaches the level of prosecution and a criminal record is avoided.
HALT means ‘stop’ and refers to ‘Het ALTernatief’ (the alternative) in Dutch. Halt was started in Rotterdam in 1981. The objective of this first Halt-office was to combat vandalism. The background of the creation of Halt was the steady increase in vandalism and the lack of any viable response to this kind of undesirable behaviour. Undesirable behaviour, which is subject to the same rules as behaviour in general. A warning by the police was seen as a ‘too soft’ response and also as insufficient in cases where damage had been caused. On the other hand, prosecution by the judicial authorities was ‘too serious’ for these relatively minor offences. In any case the possible responses open to the judicial authorities were limited (reprimand, out-of-court fine). In addition there often was a long waiting period before prosecution took place and doubts were raised regarding the educational value of this manner of proceeding.
In the mean time there are about 40 Halt-offices, spread all across The Netherlands. Children and juveniles up to 18 years of age, who have committed an offence, may be referred to Halt by the police for a Halt-arrangement or Stop-reaction. Starting point for the working-method of Halt is that to tolerate undesirable and punishable conduct is really rewarding it. By not taking action, it appears that this type of behaviour is acceptable and it could be repeated or become even worse. With the Halt-arrangement and the Stop-reaction Halt is clearly giving a signal to children and juveniles that punishable conduct will not be tolerated.
Halt is also active in the different areas that help prevent juvenile crime, such as advising, education and other prevention activities.