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The South African child justice system has adopted the philosophy of restorative justice in the management of child and youth offenders in general as reflected in the preamble of the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008. Whilst restorative justice has been easily applied to less serious youth crimes generally, there seems to be some reservations regarding its appropriateness to dealing with youth sex offenders. This article looks at restorative justice approach within the context of diversion and seeks to highlight practice issues that need to be considered with regard to the application of the aforementioned approach in dealing with youth sex offenders. The article draws from the findings of a Doctoral study that the author conducted which explored this area of social work practice.

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Responsibility and social justice were identified by Konopka (1972) as key values that should inform the social work profession. As probation is a Agents of restorative justice?Probation officers in the child justice system Thulane GxubaneThulane.Gxubane@uct.ac.za Probation officers, like generic social workers, have been and continue to be implementers rather than generators of social policies. Yet, probation officers have an important role to play in transforming the child justice system as they are central to the administration of child justice. This article argues that the Child Justice Bill (B49 of 2002) needs to be aligned with other pieces of legislation and policies that reflect a developmental approach and response to crime. The developmental approach will not only maximise the opportunities for meaningful interventions that could translate into prevention of crime and recidivism among young offenders, but will also have long-term benefits for the young offenders, their victims and society in general.