News
World Class Youth Conferencing Service Extends Throughout Northern Ireland – Hain (11/12/2006)
The Government’s statutory restorative conferencing approach for dealing with youth crime is now fully operational across all areas of Northern Ireland.Secretary of State, Peter Hain MP, made the announcement today during a visit to Londonderry where he paid tribute to the work of the Youth Justice Agency.
Peter Hain said: “The extension of the Youth Conference Service to all parts of Northern Ireland is a great achievement by the Youth Justice Agency. This demonstrates the Government’s commitment to tackling youth crime in a manner which is inclusive, challenging and forward looking.
“Youth conferencing provides an inclusive and restorative approach to healing the harm caused by crime. It encourages young offenders to take responsibility for their actions and, for the first time, provides victims with a say in the outcome.
“Independent evaluation of the process shows that it is no easy option for the young offender. Having to take responsibility for their actions and make amends to those they have hurt is a difficult path to take but one that is very effective in making the offender face up to the reality of what they have done. The high levels of engagement and the positive impact experienced by both young offenders and victims has shown this to be the case.
“From today all parts of Northern Ireland can avail of this world class youth conferencing service as part of a modern and effective justice system in which everyone can have confidence.”
Notes to editors
- The event was organised by the Youth Justice Agency to raise local awareness of the youth conferencing process in the North West and to mark the completion of an extensive three year roll-out programme.
- Youth conferencing was introduced in the Greater Belfast area in December 2003 and extended to Fermanagh and Tyrone in April 2004 and to Newry, Armagh and Banbridge in June 2005. It was further rolled out to the North Down, Downpatrick, Lisburn and Craigavon areas in October 2006 and finally to the Londonderry, Coleraine, Ballymena, Larne and Antrim areas at the beginning of December 2006.
- It is available for children aged 10-17 on referral from the Public Prosecution Service or, on conviction, from the youth court.
- To date the Youth Conference Service has received 1,430 referrals and over 6,000 people have attended youth conferences.
- Conferencing is provided by the Youth Conference Service of the Youth Justice Agency.
- An independent evaluation of the Youth Conferencing process was carried out by a team from theInstitute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Queen's University,Belfast. Their report was published in March 2006 and is available from websites: www.nio.gov.uk or www.youthjusticeagencyni.gov.uk
- Key findings of the evaluation report in relation to victim and young offender participation and satisfaction include:-
- The majority of victims (69%) attended conferences
- Of those victims who attended a conference, 79% were satisfied or very satisfied with the outcome
- An overwhelming majority of young people (91%) and victims (81%) preferred the conference over court.
- 92% of young people and 78% of victims believed the conference had helped the young person realise the harm caused by the offence.
- The vast majority of young people, (86%) and victims, (88%), would recommend a conference to a person in a similar situation.
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