Second chances: youth justice co-ordinators’ perspectives on the youth justice family group conference process.

TL;DRAbstract

In New Zealand’s system of Youth Justice (YJ) the Family Group Conference (FGC) process plays a pivotal role in addressing the offending behaviour of young people under seventeen. Mandated under the Children, Young Persons, and their Families Act 1989 (the Act), the FGC is a formal meeting in which the persons most affected by a young person’s offending, typically the young person, their family, their victim(s) and associated professionals, collectively decide how the young person should be held accountable. The process is managed by a YJ Co-ordinator, appointed by the Department of Child, Youth and Family (the Department). This dissertation presents the findings of an evaluation of the YJ FGC process from the perspectives of YJ Co-ordinators. The study aimed to understand the process and the development of practice, to identify factors constituting best practice and current areas of weakness in the process. It comprised of semi-structured interviews with (n=19) YJ Co-ordinators with a

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