restorative justice

[Oz girl]

And, of course, if a kid is genuinely criminally victimizing people, his ass belongs in juvie.
Julie

This quote is about the only thing i disagreed with in a post by Julie on the WWASP forum. I would argue that sentencing for young offenders in the majority of cases needs to err on the side of second chances. Once a person is incarcerated they are much more likely to reoffend. It would be good to see a restorative justice model set up particularly in the case of property crimes. in most cases this involves some kind of mediated conference where the victim of the crime tells of the impact that the crime has had on them and the purpertrator has to listen and take in the effects of what they have done as a part of their sentencing.

In 2003 the NSW town of Nowra set up a version of this for indigenous offenders both juvenile and adult when white magistrates and aboriginal elders agreed that what they were doing was not working either for the offenders or the wider community. The results have been great. As at last year only one offender had been sent to jail under this system. Only a small handful and reoffended at all. here are some articles on both the Justice circle and the general conferencing model

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/ ... 01318.html

http://www.yenmag.net/article.php?iss=27&art=343

http://aic.gov.au/crc/reports/strang/sa.html

[Oz girl]

Glad to see that Australia is catching up with the times. I think you will find in most situations they don't actively hurl the entire book at the kid on his first offense depending on his crime. A friend of mine was charged with burglary as a minor. He had to work 700 hours of community service and pay a whacking great fine and restitution.

It entirely depends on the judge and the crime committed.

Im glad your friend got lucky. Its too bad that martin lee Anderson did not get that chance. The juvinile justice system was not that kind to Michael Willitsie either. i am assuming that the US is like Australia in that the laws vary from state to state so it really depends on where you live as to whether or not there is a justice system that looks at the big picture. i am also not sure if you read the articles as it is neither about throwing the book at someone or letting them off easily it is about having them appreciate the impact of their crime on the victim

[Anonymous]

Oz girl, the boy you were talking about is black. You get the justice you can pay for in this country. And being white doens't hurt.