Study conducted in identifying the main determinants for rec...

Terms of Reference

Study conducted in identifying the main determinants for recidivism among children in conflict with the law in Gaza and West Bank

Organization and Context background information

Terre des hommes (Tdh) is a leading Swiss child-relief agency with a strong mandate worldwide on restorative juvenile justice, which accumulates over 40 years of experience in the Palestinian context. Tdh’s multisectoral work in oPt focuses on providing integrated, age and gender-sensitive protection services to children, youth and families, including refugee and displaced people, children in conflict with the law, and survivors of domestic violence and SGBV. The Access to Justice Program (A2J) has been implemented in Palestine since 2010 including a specific and unique component focused on the application of the restorative justice for children in conflict with the law

Tdh access to justice program aims at contributing to develop and improve justice systems by enhancing the restorative approach and in particular by promoting alternatives to trials, detention and specialized custodial care for children by better prevention, reintegration, and synergies in context of legal pluralism.

Tdh is a well-recognized actor in Palestine with a long and fruitful collaboration vis a vis justice stakeholders and national institutions on the policy, capacity building and specialized service provision components, chiefly. The A2J Program’s Strategic Plan creates a comprehensive framework for action that combines axes on operations, advocacy and policy, research and quality and accountability, with a view to creating lasting and meaningful change in the lives of children in conflict and in contact with the law, where their rights are respected and upheld.

Within the A2J Program in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, a specialized programmatic approach focused in enhancing the application of the restorative approaches during the different judicial and non- judicial stages for children in contact with the law. This to ensure reintegrating children within their natural communities by providing them with the needed aftercare services focusing on changing their behaviors  .

Rational of the assignment

Over the past years, justice system has been intermittently shifting between a punitive and a rehabilitative approach in dealing with children in conflict with the law.  One’s childhood is an important contributing factor in the development of a child. It is through these years that they discover their first learning experiences which would later form their cognitive, emotional and social development. Several factors contributed to the increase of children -related crimes which caused a detrimental threat to youth development as well as maintaining a secure environment for all, while at the same time the need for identifying key contributing factors to recidivism is a priority to designing effective systems both in the official level as well as community and family level.

Palestine ratified the Convention of the Right of the Child in April 2014. As a result of this ratification, a decree-law on the protection of juveniles was issued in 2016. This new decree-law is in line to some extent with the CRC, the modern Criminal Policy, and international standards in terms of juvenile justice. However, the Juvenile Offenders Law of 1937 is still in force in Gaza.   

Within the criminal legal sense, recidivism is the repeated perpetration of a criminal offence by a person who has been convicted for a prior criminal offense, and in criminal law, recidivism exists when a person returns to a penitentiary-correction institution as a consequence of the execution of a sentence for an offense he/she  has committed after the conviction for a prior criminal offense[1]. Therefore there is an important connection exists between recidivism and the growing body of criminal desistance, which refers to the process by which a person arrives at a permanent state of nonoffending. In effect, an individual released from prison will either recidivate or desist. To the extent that interventions and sanctions affect the process of desistance and what are the main factors which are leading children to recidivism.

As the term “measuring recidivism specifically in the penitentiary system” refers to the use of scientific methods, which periodically determine the extension or rate of recidivism among Children in conflict with the law in the penitentiary system[2]. The most used methods for this purpose include self-reporting of recidivist juveniles through interviews or questionnaires, official data on juveniles suspected of or detained for the perpetration of criminal offenses, data from the courts related to the legal procedures during the pre trial and  trials, what are the follow,  dynamic factors such as: family socio-economic factors, living conditions, community factors. The study will explain the aforementioned dynamic factors are taken into consideration during the justice system. Moreover, the study will also identify the gaps in the legal procedures and judicial system that could lead to re-commit the violation of the law.  In addition, the study will investigate whether referring to mediation contribute to reducing the child's return to committing legal violations in the future?. The study will attempt to explore whether care centers contribute to reducing/increasing recidivism.

This study is very important as there are no such researchers were conducted in the West Bank. It will be very helpful for interested ministries and stakeholders.

In Palestine, UNICEF and Tdh are currently running a project entitled: “Enhancing  access to justice for children in the Gaza Strip and Westbank” with the purpose of strengthening the justice system in the Gaza and the West Bank, through providing services to children in conflict with the law inside Al Rabee Care Centre, Dar  Al Amal Care Center for Observation and Social Care and Alfatayat “young adolescents” Care centres  including child protection case management, structured and non-structured psychosocial support services, and recreational activities.

Reducing/preventing recidivism can contribute to stabilizing the lives of children in contact with the justice system and their families, lowering the costs associated with incarceration, and reducing crime rates positively contributing to the community development.

Preventing recidivism requires effective interventions based on an understanding of the factors that place offenders at risk and make it difficult for them to successfully reintegrate into society. Therefore, Tdh is seeking an external consultant to conduct a study entitled: “Determinants for recidivism among children in conflict with the law in Gaza and West Bank”. Therefore, Tdh Palestine counts with the concrete expertise and capacity to organize and launch a consultative process with all relevant actors and stakeholders Gaza and WB to conduct a study to identifying the main determinants for recidivism among children in conflict with the law, practices and recommendations in Gaza and Westbank, this study sought to describe factors which lead children to reoffend the unlawful acts after being bailed out or released through the court or mediation. To pursue the aim of this study, set of Key Informative Interviews (KII) will be conducted with the main access to justice actors and focus group discussions will be conducted with the children, their families and MOSD staff, aiming to be able to identify the main causes, needs and interventions to decrease recidivism among children in conflict with the law, by providing the right legal and social support.   

The main findings of the study could be shared with the main child justice actors, used by child protection actors, including the MoSD to identify and implement interventions that can reduce the rate of recidivism which will contribute to improving the overall wellbeing of children in conflict with the law.

To better/deeply understand the main factors for recidivism among children in conflict with the law to be able to develop and adapt new policies, legal procedures and interventions and to ensure better reintegration for children within their normal societies; hence, as a result reducing recidivism

Methodology of the assignment

Under this consultancy, Tdh is seeking the services of a specialized professional or team of professionals (national) consultants in close coordination with Tdh team at national and regional levels to conduct and roll out a study entitled “identifying the main determinants for recidivism among children in conflict with the law, practices and recommendations in Gaza and Westbank”  to ensure that children in conflict with the law are better served through improved quality of service provisions focusing on changing their behaviours and to ensure reintegrating them within their natural communities, therefore the study should be based:

1. Conducting desk review for the national legislatives, studies, legal and social procedures applied for children who are re –offending the unlawful criminal act, requesting data (statistics) number of recidivism cases among juveniles from MOSD if its available
2. Developing the KII and the focus group discussion tools, to be shared with Tdh team for approval
3. Conducting focus group discussions with the children, their families, probation officers and social workers in the care centers, informal actors such community leaders .
4. Interviewing the following Key professional parties and institutions:

• Professional parties during the judicial procedures: the juvenile prosecutors, juvenile judges, police officers, probation officers in Gaza (Child Protection Officers in West Bank), and social workers at the care centers, to clarify the roles of the child justice actors, and to inspect the quality of services provided for children in conflict with the law and the access to the services (what are the rehabilitation and reintegration approaches and plans)
• Main parties involved within the judicial procedures: children in conflict with the law arrested, convicted, released and bailed out, parents and caregivers, the lawyers working with children in conflict with the law, to be able to tackle the main causes for children to be in conflict with the law economic, social...., the roles of the community and the families to prevent children in conflict with the law to re- offend the criminal act.
• During the different interviews the consultant will evaluate the main child rights (The best interest of the child, non- discrimination, dignity and dignified treatment, and meaningful treatment)

Tasks and Key deliverables

For this consultancy, the following tasks and deliverables are sought:

• Developing Data collection tools for the interviews and the focus group discussions.
• Develop an inception report within the first two weeks of the assignment.
• Conducting Key Informative Interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) with the different governmental professional that will be involved in the process, children in conflict with the law and their families.
• Drafting all of the interviews and FGDs data.
• Analyzing all the collected data.
• Developing the study with a clear comprehensive recommendations in both languages AR and EN.
• Conduct two workshops in Gaza and West Bank to share the main findings with Tdh and UNICEF team.

Submission of Expression of Interest

Interested consultants/ firms are expected to submit a detailed expression of interest (technical offer which includes a detailed methodology, data collection tools, data analysis and the proper time frame) and financial proposal), explaining how they meet the required knowledge and skills set, with the following components:

      Proposed work schedule.

• Proposed budget in ILS, including income tax, the VAT is exempted.
• CV(s) of the individual(s) who will undertake the consultancy.
• Example of previous similar assignments, if any.

Timeframe

• Between February 2023 and April 2023, it is estimated the consultant will require a total of 20 working days to complete the entire assignment.

Requirements for the expert

• A post-graduate or equivalent qualification/degree in Law or, Human rights, psychology, Development Studies, Humanities, social or any other relevant discipline.
• At least 6-9 years of prior work experience in dealing with justice system, access to justice in the national context (Palestine), and social and mental health
• Proven sound experience on drafting similar deliverables (providing concrete examples and when possible, excerpts/samples).
• Proven track record of taking part in and reporting on similar tasks:
  • Previous experience on conducting studies using data triangulation (qualitative and quantitative research methods) and data analysis.
  • Previous experience in qualitative data analysis, mainly thematic analysis and content analysis.
• Demonstrated experiences in conducting workshops and training sessions.
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy.
• Excellent analytical and reporting skills – with proven authorship of reports.
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Arabic.

Ethical considerations

• The consultant/consulting agency must sign the Terre des hommes Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct and be willing to adhere to its principles and expected practices. If a breach of the policy or code of conduct takes place the consultancy will be terminated immediately without any financial burden on Tdh.

Disclaimer on copyright, data protection

All documents, project designs, drawings, data and information shall be treated as confidential and shall not without the written approval of Tdh be made available to any third party. In addition, the consultant(s) formally undertakes not to disclose any parts of the confidential information and shall not, without the written approval of Tdh be made available to any third party. The utilization of the report is solely at the decision and discretion of Tdh. All the documents containing both raw data/materials provided by Tdh and final report, both soft and hard copies are to be returned to Tdh upon completion of the assignment. All documentation and reports written as, and as a result of the research or otherwise related to it, shall remain the property of Tdh. No part of the report shall be reproduced except with the prior, expressed, and specific written permission of Tdh.

Tdh will only consider complete applications corresponding to the required profile. Applications must include a complete CV and a covering letter and should be sent to the following e-mail address: [email protected]   Deadline for applications is January 29, 2023 at 11:59 pm. Applications received beyond this deadline will not be considered.

[1] Analysis Report RECIDIVISM RATE IN JUVENILES IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW IN THE PENITENTIARY SYSTEM 2013-2014

[2] Analysis Report RECIDIVISM RATE IN JUVENILES IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW IN THE PENITENTIARY SYSTEM 2013-2014