Reducing Juvenile Crime: Conferencing Versus Court

• NCJ Number: 194918
• Author(s): Garth Luke; Bronwyn Lind
• Date Published: April 2002
• Length: 20 pages
• Sale Source: New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Crime and Justice Bulletin, Number 69; downloaded May 13, 2002.

Annotation

This New South Wales (Australia) study compared reoffending by juveniles who participated in a conference with reoffending by juveniles who attended court.

Abstract

With the commencement of New South Wales' Young Offenders Act, Youth Justice Conferencing was introduced across New South Wales as an alternative to a court appearance for juveniles. At a conference, the juvenile offender, his/her family, victims, and other supporters discuss the offending and its impact in order to encourage acceptance of responsibility by the offender, provide some form of restitution, and help to reintegrate the offender back into his/her family and community. This study focused on the reoffending patterns of juveniles who participated in conferences during the first year of operation of the Young Offenders Act, from April 6, 1998, to April 5, 1999. The findings were compared with the reoffending of juveniles who went to court during the same period. To aid comparison of the two groups and reduce the effect of prior sanctions, the study focused on first offenders. The study involved 590 first offenders who attended a conference and 3,830 first offenders who had a proven outcome at court. Since data on offending were available up to June 30, 2001, the follow-up period ranged from 27 to 39 months, depending on the date of first appearance. For the purposes of this study, "reoffending" was defined as "an appearance at court which results in the offense being proven, or an appearance at a conference for a new offending episode." The study found that conferencing yielded a moderate reduction of 15 percent to 20 percent in reoffending compared with the juveniles who went to court. This reduction held across different offense types and regardless of the gender, criminal history, age, and Aboriginality of the offenders. Although the reduction in reoffending may be small, the effect was persistent in all of the comparisons conducted. 22 tables, 7 figures, 8 notes, 16 references, and appended overview of research on restorative justice reoffending, data used in the study, and the definition of offense types used in the study