Restoration in Youth Justice

Source: (2004) In Youth Crime and Youth Justice: Comparative and Cross-National Perspectives. The University of Chicago. Crime and Justice: A Review of Research. Vol. 31: 543-597.

Except in New Zealand, restorative justice programs and values remain at the fringes of Western youth justice systems. Restorative justice shows potential for gaining a much larger role. Research shows that programs typically gain higher levels of victim and offender satisfaction than traditional approaches, achieve impressively high rates of completion of offenders’ agreed obligations, and take better account of victims’, offenders’, and community interests. Research evidence on reoffending rates and on community effects points toward positive outcomes and does not point toward worse outcomes than existing justice system approaches. Restorative justice is more amenable to incorporating procedural fairness and proportionality than are rehabilitative juvenile justice approaches. Nearly every Western justice system incorporates restorative justice programs and values for some young offenders, typically for less serious offenses, but there is no reason why they need be limited to young offenders or minor crimes. Author’s abstract.