Apologies and Accounts in Youth Justice Conferencing: Reinterpreting Research Outcomes1

Abstract

The literature on restorative justice is replete with findings showing that offenders and victims judge restorative processes as fair and view outcomes as satisfactory. There is less evidence to suggest, however, that restorative processes are in fact restorative. I first consider how apology and forgiveness feature in one form of restorative justice (youth justice conferencing) and then examine findings from two major research projects in Australia (RISE and SAJJ) to show why reconciliation and repair are not common outcomes in restorative justice conferences.