NCJ Number
181931
Date Published
1999
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This discussion of restorative juvenile justice focuses on the role that police, probation, and corrections and the relationship between the restoration of harms caused by crimes and the protection of communities.
Abstract
An effective juvenile justice system, which minimizes harm caused by the justice system to communities, reduces crime and fear, and increases trust, is a necessary condition for a cohesive community; a cohesive community is a necessary condition for an effective juvenile justice system. Juvenile justice policies that are protective of communities and restorative of past harms are a cornerstone of restorative justice. Protective restoration equals re-examining public safety approaches and evaluating them based on their restorative capacity. A successful restorative public safety initiative should restore communities to a less vulnerable status, create community guardians that protect routine activities, improve communities’ capacities to resolve disputes through local restorative structures, reduce fear of crime, and reduce crime. Factors that might impede such an approach include organizational self-interest among criminal justice agencies as well as political self-interest among politicians, voters, and criminal justice officials. The protective restoration model recognizes the responsibilities of communities, victims, witnesses, and offenders; supports strategies aimed at communities, victims, and offenders; and thereby attempts to neutralize multiple sources of criminal tendencies. 34 references