NCJ Number
172609
Date Published
1996
Length
31 pages
Annotation
The current crisis facing U.S. juvenile justice is best understood as a conflict between two flawed and incompatible paradigms, both of which provide limited, one-dimensional responses to youth crime; this paper explores prospects for a restorative paradigm for the juvenile court and considers implications for change in the juvenile justice mission.
Abstract
Neither the traditional individual treatment model nor the retributive justice model that has recently dominated juvenile justice policy provides an adequate framework for preserving a distinct justice system for juveniles. A restorative paradigm offers an alternative value base, new goals and objectives, and new priorities for policy and practice. Both treatment and retributive intervention are one-dimensional and offender-driven. The restorative paradigm provides a three-dimensional focus on meeting the needs of victims, offenders, and communities and involving each in the justice process. Although restorative justice acknowledges the connection between criminal justice and social justice, a restorative juvenile justice would not directly affect issues of racism, poverty, and oppression. By focusing on engaging communities in resolving the harm caused by crime and changing the lens through which crime is viewed, however, it could begin to model a collaborative process for solving these problems while engaging citizens directly in the response to youth crime and victimization. The challenge to juvenile justice professionals is to provide leadership by adopting new values and strategies that attempt to rebuild a sense of community. 98 references