NCJ Number
115405
Date Published
1990
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Guidance is presented to help juvenile restitution programs, community service agencies, and juvenile employers avoid liability and to enable restitution programs to be fair and protective of all parties.
Abstract
The Restitution Education, Specialized Training, and Technical Assistance Program was established by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to promote restitution as a juvenile sanction that helps compensate the victim, rehabilitate the offender, and serve society's broader aim of preventing future delinquency. Despite the widespread use of restitution as a juvenile court disposition, legislatures and courts have paid relatively little attention to liability and legal issues surrounding use of the sanction. Programs that assume responsibility for placing youth in paid or unpaid positions must consider injuries sustained by the juvenile in a court-ordered placement, injuries or harm done by the juvenile at the worksite, and loss or damages caused by the youth as a result of crime committed at the workplace. Liability extends beyond injury to the youth performing the community service or monetary restitution. The youth may injure a third party, and the third party may bring a claim to recover for the injury, citing negligence, failure to warn about dangerous offenders, or failure to supervise dangerous offenders. Even in cases where a duty to warn or to supervise has been found, liability has been defeated when the entity was governmental and therefore immune from liability. When ordering and implementing monetary restitution and unpaid community service orders, courts must follow due process, provide equal protection of the law, and insure that the scope and amount of restitution are assessed fairly. 97 notes.