Preventing and addressing youth offending: Restorative justice and family focused programming

Abstract

Restorative justice measures are often presented as the most desirable method for dealing with cases of children who come into conflict with the law. Whilst restorative practices have the potential to contribute to constructive and curative strategies for addressing child offending, there are limitations to these approaches. Restorative mechanisms often prioritise healing and reparation for victims, over addressing the root causes of child offending, and the social and family contexts which underlie children's offending behaviour. They may be most valuable where they complement, rather than replace, the work done by a wide range of social agencies that play a role in tackling the risk factors associated with child offending. The first half of this chapter evaluates the theory and application of restorative justice methods for preventing and addressing youth offending, while the second half presents a comparative review of a holistic, family-focused model that has been used as a prevention, diversion and sentencing alternative for children in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Tanzania; and provides a series of recommendations for strengthening these programmes, which aim to address both the impacts and causes of juvenile crime.