Juvenile Restorative Justice Program (Midwest County)
Problems addressed
Recidivism
Juvenile delinquency
Effectiveness

Promising

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Promising

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Life periods served
Teenagers (14 to 17 years)
Where the program was applied
Courts of justice
Country of application
United States
Description

This is a youth redirection program, based on the precepts of restorative justice, which presents itself as an alternative to the judicial process by the juvenile courts. The aim of restorative justice conferences is to promote accountability on the part of young offenders and to repair the damage resulting from the crime.

The program consists of bringing together those affected by a criminal incident (including juvenile offenders and victims) in a non-adversarial process designed for the parties to meet in person.

Impact evaluations

An impact assessment showed that the intervention had statistically significant results in terms of reducing the average number of days to rearrest (441.7 days for participants in the treatment group and 254.1 days for participants in the control group). However, over a four-year period, they found no statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups with respect to the likelihood of any official contact with the police.

The study had a quasi-experimental design, with a total sample of 330 young people, 164 were received the intervention and 166 were in the control group [1].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Bergseth, K. J. y Bouffard, J. A. (2007). The long-term impact of restorative justice programming for juvenile offenders. Journal of Criminal Justice, 35(4), 433–451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.05.006

Information source