Trusting the Community to Get it Right — Resolving Serious Offences Outside the Traditional Justice System. Youth Justice Conferencing in New South Wales, Australia.

Source: (2006) Papers presented at the Fourth Conference of the European Forum for Restorative Justice, “Restorative justice: An agenda for Europe”, Barcelona, Spain, 15-17 June 2006.

While ‘seriousness’, ‘degree of violence’ and ‘harm to the victim’ are criteria for assessing whether a matter is appropriate for YJC, the Act requires that less serious matters be finalised by formal caution. Conferences are intended for serious and repeat offenders, and appropriate matters may include assaults occasioning injury, property offences where the monetary value of damage is tens, or hundreds, of thousands of dollars, or other offences where the victim has suffered significant physical or material harm. (excerpt)