Victim participation in the new juvenile court: tracking judicial attitudes toward restorative justice reforms

Source: (2000) Justice System Journal. 21(2): 199-226

Recently, the restorative justice emphasis on repairing harm has helped to link victim involvement to a broader juvenile court mission that includes victims, offenders, and communities as stakeholders in the juvenile justice process. Based on a national survey of juvenile court judges in the United States and qualitative data from focus groups in four States, the authors examined attitudes toward crime victim participation at several levels of the juvenile justice system. The impact of individual experience, organizational environment, and professional ideology on these attitudes was assessed using multivariate analysis to explain differences in support for the focus on victim involvement as one component of restorative justice. Survey findings revealed no clear or uniform consensus among judges about the role of crime victims in juvenile courts and in the juvenile justice process. Implications for the implementation of restorative justice policies and practices and for future research are considered. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.