Youth justice conferencing family and community involvement
Families are the foundation of communities — they shape lives and steer children into adulthood. Youth justice conferencing helps to strengthen and empower families through their involvement in the decision-making about a young person's offending behaviour.
The conferencing process allows families to:
- take an active role in deciding an appropriate response to offending behaviour and support them to implement that response
- support a young person's compliance with an agreement, which serves to encourage the development of positive relationships within the family
- find out how the young person is feeling and about issues associated with the young person's offending behaviour
- gain greater insight into the impact of the young person's behaviour.
One parent stated, I thought it did a lot of good. At first I felt extremely uncomfortable, but after hearing everyone else's side of the story I realised how these poor people must feel. It's made me realise how I have got to have my son do things, for example sport, because this doing nothing and roaming the streets will just get him nowhere in life.
Reintegration
A key feature of the conferencing process is reintegrating the young person back into their community. When young people feel a sense of belonging and connectedness to their community, they are less likely to offend.
Through the reintegration process, youth justice conferencing:
- strengthens the social and personal connections the young person has with their family and the wider community
- encourages greater community participation in providing support for young people and victims of crime
- allows for cultural and community input to ensure that the conference is appropriate to the young person's community. For example, in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, involving members of the local justice group or community elders is vital to ensure that the conference process is culturally appropriate and inclusive of these communities.
Last reviewed: 20 October 2009