ABSTRACT This article focuses on diversion and accounts for the offenders in and around Durban diverted to National Institute for Crime Prevention and Reintegration of Offenders (NICRO) for treatment and rehabilitation from December 2004 to July 2005. A method and technique of mass observation, was implemented to achieve specific aims. A pre-coded, closed-structured information schedule was used to gather information from 270 case files of diverted juvenile delinquents at Nicro, Durban. A purposive sampling technique was used to collect data as diverted juveniles could not be interviewed. The findings are that Durban’s Youth Court referred the largest number of juvenile offenders through diversion to Nicro. The study emphasizes different aspects of diversion, namely how many juveniles were allocated to the various programmes, family structure of diverted juveniles, juvenile offending and family status of diverted juvenile offenders. Further findings were that: the majority of diverted juveniles 88 (32.0%) lived in Umlazi Township, predominant black residential area at the time of their diversion to admittance at NICRO, the largest number 62(23%) of juveniles did not pass Grade 8, most commonly committed crimes were theft (type of theft was not specified in diverted juvenile files) and shoplifting and that family status of diverted offenders showed that out of the 275 cases examined in this study 176 of the juvenile offenders were from broken families. The study concludes that further in-depth research into juvenile diversion at national level should be undertaken to evaluate the success or failure rate of diversion in a wider context as an alternative to imprisonment.
