Diversion without structural decarceration: Penal governance and youth justice reform in Vietnam

This article examines Vietnam’s Juvenile Justice Law 2024 through the lenses of penal governance and labelling theory. While diversion is commonly presented as a reform aimed at reducing custodial intervention, its institutional configuration under the new law limits its capacity to produce structural decarceration. Diversion is introduced only after formal case initiation, mediated through prosecutorial gatekeeping, limited by offence-based eligibility criteria, and sustained through conditional compliance and supervisory escalation. The article distinguishes between statistical and structural decarceration and argues that diversion may reduce immediate custodial outcomes without altering the institutional structure through which penal intervention is organised. It uses the term restorative mimicry to capture this pattern, in which rehabilitative, educational, and child-sensitive framing is formally adopted while reform remains shaped by prosecutorial continuity and inherited penal institutions. The Vietnamese case contributes to debates on diversion, penal governance, and youth justice reform beyond Western jurisdictions.