Joan Rotherham, of Timaru Lawlink firm Timpany Walton, gives a description of the Youth Court in New Zealand.
The Youth Court aims at ensuring that young offenders pay their debts to society quickly. Then they can get on with their lives, putting offending behind them. This court deals with offenders between the ages of 14 and 17 (and occasionally those between 10 and 14). Its tasks include punishing young offenders and considering victims' rights. But its greatest challenge is to deal with young offenders in a way that will stop them re-offending.
The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 attempts to:
keep the offender in the community (if that is practicable and will not endanger anyone's safety) get the offender to understand the effect of his or her crime on the victim, apologise, and make amends to the victim get the offender's family to take part in the decision-making and develop ways of dealing with the offender's problems divert offenders from the courts as much as is prudent.The family group conference lies at the heart of the youth justice system. It is a move away from the old model of state intervention and an attempt to solve the problems of young offenders by using the resources of the family and the wider community.
A conference can be held only if the offender admits the offence or has been convicted at a hearing. All such offenders under 17 must attend a conference (unless they are charged with murder or manslaughter).
A youth justice co-ordinator (employed by the Children Young Persons and Their Families' Service) arranges and chairs each family group conference. The offender, his or her family, a police youth aid officer, and usually the offender's youth advocate (a lawyer) attends the conference.
The victim can also attend. Some friends may come with him or her to offer support. The conference must take the victim's views into account.
The victim is given the opportunity to make the offender aware of how the offence has affected him or her. Victims can explain how they feel about problems like the destruction of prized possessions, fear of assault or burglary or recovering from an injury.
The present system aims at making young offenders take responsibility for their wrongdoing, repair the damage and/or accept a penalty. This will usually mean that the offender apologises, pays reparation, makes a donation to a charity or does some type of work (sometimes for the victim).
After agreement is reached the conference asks the Youth Court to make orders, unless it is dealing with a minor offence. If the conference cannot agree, the case is usually referred to the Youth Court as well. All Youth Courts are closed to the public.
The Youth Court's order may be different from the conference's decision. It will sometimes make a harsher order and may refer the case to the High Court so that a substantial period of imprisonment can be imposed. This happened in the recent case of the four pupils sentenced for burning down their school gym.
The most common results of conferences are apologies (70% of the cases) and work in the community (58% of the cases). The average period of work agreed to is 65 hours.
About a quarter of conferences make recommendations about the work, education or skills training of the offender. A fifth of conferences recommend support and counselling for the offender to help decrease the chances of re-offending.
The Act's approach includes restorative justice or making amends to the victim. The New Zealand model of conferencing has been influenced by traditional Maori ideas of dealing with crime.
Conferences are not a "soft option" for young offenders. The offenders suffer the embarrassment of having to come to terms with the victim's emotions and the effect of their crime. They generally acknowledge their guilt to the victim, express remorse and apologise.
Family group conferences help families understand the reasons for their children's offending, improve their coping skills and take responsibility for helping to alter the offender's behaviour. This helps improve the families' well-being and reduces the risk that other children in these families will also offend.
Copyright The Lawlink Group Ltd 2002
Every effort has been made to ensure that this information is accurate. However, it is general introductory information only. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied on as such. Specialist legal advice should be sought in particular matters. Any reference to law and legislation is to New Zealand law and legislation.
Joan Rotherham is an Associate in the Lawlink firm of Timpany Walton. Joan has many years' experience in all aspects of family law, in which she has practised almost exclusively for all her career.
Web site:
Timpany WaltonEmail: joan.rotherham@timpanywalton.co.nz
March 2002