EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
New Zealand has garnered international acclaim for its youth justice processes.
In particular, the New Zealand invention of the “family group conference (FGC)” for
youth offenders has been hailed as a pioneering model of restorative justice.
As an American prosecutor, I came to New Zealand this year specifically to study
the FGC and other restorative justice initiatives in New Zealand. I have become
convinced that restorative justice processes work and should be pursued as a matter of
criminal justice policy.
But what is restorative justice? Restorative justice is a process whereby parties
with a stake in a criminal offense (including the offender, the victim, and the
communities of each) collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of the criminal
act with an emphasis on repairing the harm from that act – the harm to the victim, to the
community, and to the offender her/himself. Examples of restorative justice include
FGCs, sentencing circles in North America, and victim-offender mediations in the United
States, each of which are described below.
Criminal justice processes that are restorative share a number of characteristics
that explain why they are effective in – among other things – reducing reoffending,
increasing satisfaction rates, and preventing crime in the first place.
Perhaps most important, restorative justice makes the actual victims of crime
central participants in the response to the crime. FGCs in New Zealand are conferences
in which victims are invited to meet offenders and their families, with the police and a
justice coordinator present, to discuss the crime and what should happen as a result of the
crime. Victims are thereby given a voice to tell of the impact of the crime and to get their
questions answered: Why were they victimized? Will they be victimized again? How
will the offender put things right? In New Zealand, victims have the right (but no
obligation) to attend the mandated FGC and to tell the young offender face-to-face about
the personal impact of the crime. Persons who have observed FGCs attest to how
important this expression is not only for the victim but the offender and his/her family.
Critically, the involvement of the victim leads to a greater accountability from the
young offender. It is difficult for offenders to make excuses and to retreat behind a shell
in the face of victims recounting the often devastating impact of the offense. Offenders
more often express real remorse, which is a key step to their own journey away from
crime and to the healing of the wounds suffered by victims.
Restorative justice works additionally because it gives new voices to victims, to
offenders, and to community representatives. In this way, the participants – including
even police – feel a greater sense of ownership in the process and of the outcomes
produced by the process. This explains why researchers have found much higher levels
of satisfaction with restorative justice processes than with traditional criminal justice in
the courts. Victim and offender satisfaction rates in excess of 90% are not unusual.
4
Restorative justice programs are also a natural fit with com