Source: (1994) In C. Alder and J. Wundersitz (eds.), Family Conferencing and Juvenile Justice: The Way Forward or Misplaced Optimism? Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. Pp 15-44.
Family group conferences have a number of advantages, including empowerment of offenders, strengthening families, enhances opportunities for victims, and empowering community control. While FGCs seem to offer something for everybody, there are a number of concerns including due process, pressures to plead guilty, power imbalances, harsh disproportionate penalties, net-widening, double jeopardy and sex discrimination. This paper draws out these concerns as challenges for FGCs to overcome.
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