News
Further Roll-out of Youth Conference Service (25/09/2006)
The Youth Conference Service, part of the Youth Justice Agency, will complete a further stage of its roll-out programme at the beginning of October.From October 2nd, the Youth Courts in Bangor, Newtownards, Downpatrick, Lisburn and Craigavon will be empowered to make referrals to the Youth Conference Service as a means of disposal.
The Youth Conference Service organises and facilitates conferences between victims of youth crime and the young offenders between the ages of 10 and 17, to help the offender make amends to their victim for the harm caused.
They come together to discuss the impacts of the crime on the victim, to explore reasons why the young person committed the offence and agree what needs to happen to repair the harm and what the young person can do to stop offending.
Alice Chapman, Youth Conference Service Director, said, “Research has shown that the most effective way to prevent re-offending by children and young people is to make them feel involved in the decision-making process.
“This is not a soft option for young offenders and evidence clearly shows that restorative conferencing satisfies victims better than any other sentence. Victims' views are taken into consideration and redress made for the harm caused”.
The new service will work closely with the community and with relevant statutory and voluntary agencies and community groups in the area.
The Youth Conference Service, which was the subject of a major television advertising campaign earlier this year, was first launched in Belfast in December 2003 and further rolled out to Fermanagh and Tyrone in April 2004 and Armagh, Banbridge and Newry in May 2005. The service will be available right across Northern Ireland by the end of the year.
The Youth Conference Service is one directorate of the Youth Justice Agency, which also encompasses Community Services and the Juvenile Justice Centre for Northern Ireland. The Agency has a vision of having the lowest youth offending rates in the European Union by 2011.
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