The Child Justice Bill from a restorative justice perspective.

Source: (2005) In Traggy Maepa, ed., Beyond Retribution: Prospects for Restorative Justice in South Africa. Monograph no. 111, February. Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies, with the Restorative Justice Centre. Downloaded 9 August 2005.

Skelton’s article begins by examining the history of restorative justice principles in the child justice system starting with the family group conferences project piloted by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Young People at Risk. The article then examines the lessons to be learned from past experiments with children and restorative justice. Skelton provides an overview of the Child Justice Bill, including objectives, sentencing options and the further use of family group conferences. Finally, the article examines whether the Child Justice Bill does in fact promote restorative justice, and addresses some possible pitfalls in the implementation of the Child Justice Bill nationwide. Abstract courtesy of the Marquette University Law School-Restorative Justice Initiative http://law.marquette.edu/cgi-bin/site.pl?2130&pageID=1831