Is restorative justice conferencing appropriate for youth offenders?

Abstract

While many studies on restorative justice conferencing (RJC) for youth offenders have shown favourable outcomes such as victim satisfaction and fairness, and offender accountability and perceived legitimacy, other studies have demonstrated more problematic outcomes in terms of mutual understanding, sincerity of apology and reoffending. Given the complexity of RJC as a concept and as a process, such 'limits' might be attributed to the capacity and characteristics of youth offenders. To date, however, there has been little examination of developmental, cognitive, or environmental impediments on the part of youth offenders in terms of achieving restorative outcomes in RJC. This paper discusses the potential impacts of limited developmental and cognitive capacities of youth offenders on the RJC process and outcomes.

Apology–forgiveness cycle in restorative justice, but how?

“…Recently, some scholars have started to explore the impact of the youthfulness of offenders in the RJ process and outcomes (e.g. Suzuki and Wood, 2018). In contrast, with a few exceptions such as Gal (2011), scant attention has been paid to the age of victims in RJ literature.…”

“…Another impediment may be coercion. While RJ aims to treat every participant equally, there may be an inherent power imbalance between participants (Suzuki and Wood, 2018). This power imbalance may be the most salient for offenders because they are sometimes coerced to participate in the RJ processes under the fear of more severe punishment (Abrams et al, 2006).…”

Possibility of Sincere Apology in Restorative Justice: When and How?

“…They found that there was a positive association between eye contact and the perceived sincerity of apology because, when an apology was offered, victims paid attention to 'the offender's upper face region, i.e., around the eyes and the eyebrows (e.g., Chaby et al, 2017)' (Bonensteffen et al, 2020, p. 13). Nevertheless, as Suzuki and Wood (2018) argued, some offenders, especially young ones, may not have sufficient communication skills. Indeed, Choi and Severson (2009, p. 819) reported that victims who participated in victim-offender mediation questioned the sincerity of apology because young offenders failed to show 'nonverbal cues such as looking the victim in the eye, appearing to look remorseful in facial expressions, [and] speaking with a tone of respect'.…”

From ‘what works’ to ‘how it works’ in research on restorative justice conferencing: the concept of readiness

“…However, voluntary participation in restorative justice processes, particularly for offenders, may be more complex than that (c.f. Suzuki & Wood, 2018). For instance, some offenders may voluntarily attend for self-regarding reasons, such as avoiding harsher punishment (Campbell et al, 2006).…”