Youth Offending and Restorative Justice: Implementing Reform in Youth Justice

Source: (2003) Devon, UK: Willan Publishing.

One of the chief spheres for restorative justice thought and initiatives has been juvenile justice. In their book, Adam Crawford and Tim Newburn continue this emphasis by focusing on the implementation of juvenile justice reform guided by restorative justice theory and practices. Specifically, Crawford and Newburn offer an empirically informed, theoretically grounded account of the recent radical changes to the youth justice system in England and Wales. They do so by examining attempts to introduce elements of restorative justice into the youth justice system through the use of referral orders and youth offender panels as provided by the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. The chapters of the book cover a number of aspects of this significant reform of juvenile justice in England and Wales: the origins and development of youth justice; restorative justice ideals and practices; implementation of restorative justice initiatives; referral orders and youth panels; organization of the delivery of referral orders; referral orders and the courts; youth offender panels; implementation of contracts negotiated with youth offenders; community panel members; youth offenders and their families; victims and referral orders; and implementation of the new youth justice system. Throughout the book, relevant statistics are presented to illuminate the authors’ examination of youth justice reform, and a list of references at the end of the book both underscores their research and points to additional study directions for interested persons.