Restorative Justice for Youth

Youth Offenders: A Special Case

It is often overlooked that many offenders in juvenile crimes are victims themselves. Studies show that:

• Child abuse and neglect increase the likelihood of children’s future delinquency and criminality, including a 59 percent higher chance of juvenile arrest.
• Children who have been maltreated have been shown to be younger at their time of arrest and arrested more frequently than children who were not maltreated.
• Over 50 percent of youth offenders have been abused or neglected.
• Maltreatment results in a high risk of a variety of negative outcomes for children. These outcomes include a predisposition to later delinquency, serious and violent offending, placement in out-of-home residential facilities, the victimization of community members, and high rates of recidivism, school dropouts, teen pregnancy and gang involvement.

American Humane’s Solution to Youth Offenses

In 1893, American Humane led the movement to remove children from adult prisons.

Today, we are as committed to child protection as ever, and are using restorative processes to help transform juvenile justice systems across the United States. Our Restorative Justice for Youth Initiative, launched in January 2008, builds on our longstanding work bringing family group decision making to child welfare systems, as well as an extremely successful approach to juvenile justice practiced in Northern California.

What do we mean by “restorative justice”? In this alternative way of looking at the criminal justice system:

• Young offenders are required to accept responsibility for their crimes and take an active role in repairing the damage their crimes have done.
• Victims are empowered to ensure that their needs are met and their feelings about the crimes perpetrated against them are resolved.
• Communities often enjoy lower crime rates and safer neighborhoods.

To take advantage of these benefits and better serve everyone affected by youth offending, our Restorative Justice for Youth Initiative offers trainings and technical assistance to communities, counties and states that are working to implement restorative justice

The initiative’s focus is to provide holistic ways to address youth offending through collaborative processes and consensual outcomes that:

• Hold youth accountable for their acts
• Address victims’ needs
• Involve victims, youth and their families, communities and law enforcement agencies in the resolution process

The initiative strives to disseminate restorative justice processes and practices nationwide and to bridge the gap between child welfare and the juvenile justice system. Because of the current “disconnect” between the two systems, youth in both systems and those bearing dependency markers, such as abuse and/or neglect, and under the sole auspices of the juvenile justice system have a different set of needs: accountability and care.