| Model | Core | Historical face | Critique |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welfare/parens patriae | The state as parent — the child's needs, not the offence's deserts | The early juvenile courts (1899–1960s) | Unbounded discretion; the "help" that caged longer than punishment |
| Justice/due process | The offence's proportionate answer with the full rights armour | In re Gault's due-process revolution (name only) | The adult-process mimicry; the malleability's neglect |
| Restorative/community | The harm's repair — victim, offender and | The family- group- conference- | The net-widening risk; the victim's voluntariness |
| Model | Core | Historical face | Critique |
|---|---|---|---|
| community in dialogue | and-circle movements | ||
| Minimum intervention/neo- correctional | Diversion first; the graded, evidenced intervention (risk- need-responsivity) for the persistent few | The modern synthesis | The risk- classification's labelling echo |
| Nepal's frame: the constitutional-and- statutory architecture (Unit 5) is the minimum-intervention synthesis — juvenile courts/benches, diversion, reform homes, the last-resort custody — with the welfare legacy (the reform-home philosophy) and the justice guarantees (the Code's procedure) in the mix. |