Source: (2003) Paper presented at the Sixth International Conference On Restorative Justice. Centre for Restorative Justice. 1-4 June. Vancouver BC. Downloaded 16 June 2003.
Most serious youth delinquency is group delinquency. This aspect has some important implications for the organisation and goals of meetings between victims and young offenders. This paper reflects on the findings of a study of 50 victim-offender meetings in the Netherlands, involving 100 young offenders, and on my observations of some twenty youth justice conferences in the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. I will consider two different strategies for group delinquency and youth justice conferencing. The first is simply to bring together all the members of the group in a single conference with their victim(s) and with their parents. The alternative strategy is to organise conferences for each young offender on a one-to-one basis. I will discuss the fundamental problems and questions that each of these strategies raises in attempts to bring about a restorative dialogue.
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