Family conferencing as a juvenile justice strategy*

Abstract

A process known as ‘family conferencing’ has scarcely been embraced by juvenile justice policy‐makers in the USA. This creative initiative, alive in Australia, New Zealand and, to a lesser extent, Canada, deals with juvenile crime on the basis that it is, first and foremost, a symptom of a breakdown of relationships. It works this way. In selected cases, determined usually by the police, a conference is convened, bringing together offenders, their extended families and advocates (if appropriate), victims and their supporters, the police and an independent facilitator. Conferences are designed to bring about a clear acknowledgment of wrongdoing by offenders, engender a sense of satisfaction to victims, elicit restitution in appropriate cases and foster a desire in offenders to rebuild links with communities of which they may be a part. Conferences attempt to heal relationships by bringing together the community of people most affected by a criminal incident. The experience of those involved with the experiment in South Australia, the first jurisdiction in the world (in 1869) to initiate a juvenile justice system separate from the adult justice system, has been most encouraging. This paper explores the notion of conferencing, its connections with ‘restorative justice’ paradigms, and reviews the first two years of its implementation in South Australia.