Restorative Juvenile Justice: In Search of Fundamentals and an Outline for Systemic Reform (From Restorative Juvenile Justice: Repairing the Harm of Youth Crime, P 45-74, 1999, Gordon Bazemore and Lode Walgrave, eds. -- See NCJ-181924)

• NCJ Number: 181926
• Author(s): Gordon Bazemore; Lode Walgrave
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 30 pages
• Sale Source: Criminal Justice Press/Willow Tree Press
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Literature Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Restorative juvenile justice is examined with respect to its core principles, the distinctive aspects of juvenile delinquency and society’s reaction to it that invites restorative justice adherents to focus on juvenile justice as a primary reform context, and the basic components of an agenda for systemic juvenile justice reform.

Abstract

Restorative justice is every action that is primarily oriented toward doing justice by repairing the harm caused by a crime. It includes: (1) efforts to heal victims, offenders, and communities that crime has injured; (2) opportunities for active by victims, offenders, and communities in the criminal justice process as early and fully as possible; and (3) rethinking of the relative roles and responsibilities of the government and the community. The juvenile justice system currently seems to be the most suitable location to introduce restorative justice as a dominant response. However, the idea of coercive restorative sanctions, the need for judicial safeguards, the insistence on an outcome focus on repair, and the option of a full-fledged alternative rather than a less holistic focus are likely to be matters of discussion and disagreement. Basic differences in approaches may also occur in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. These controversies should be regarded for the time being as healthy tensions in the developmental process of the restorative justice paradigm. Figure, notes, and 60 references