Natalie Hipple
Associate Professor Of Criminal Justice, Indiana University Bloomington
Key Findings
- The results showed that 75% of youth participants reoffended in the 12-year follow-up.
- Offense type was a significant predictor of recidivism in the long-term.
- The more violent the offense, the more likely the participant was to be re-arrested in the long-term.
- Violent offenders who participated in the family group conferencing program were 25% less likely to recidivate in comparison to participants who attended non-restorative conferences in the long-term.
- For non-violent offenders, the gap was much larger with participants that attended family group conferencing being 44% less likely to reoffend than participants who attended non-restorative conferences.
Description
In the article, “Restorativeness, Procedural Justice, and Defiance as Long-Term Predictors of Reoffending of Participants in Family Group Conferences,” Hipple and her co-authors examine the effect of restorative justice programs on juvenile recidivism. They hypothesize that including components of restorative justice and family group conferencing (FGC) to existing justice programs will decrease recidivism for juveniles in the future. As opposed to traditional justice programs, restorative and family programs focus on repairing relationships, teaching the impact of crime, building respect for the law and supporting reintegration. To conduct their study, the researchers used data from the Indianapolis Juvenile Restorative Justice Experiment (JRJE). The JRJE collected data from 782 first-time juvenile offenders under the age of 14 and randomly placed them into either FGC or another diversion program. Then the JRJE continued to follow-up with the participants over a 12-year period once the treatment programs had ended. The current researchers analyzed the findings and found that 75% of youth participants reoffended in the 12-year follow-up period. Offense type was a significant predictor of recidivism in the long-term. The more violent the offense, the more likely the participant was to be re-arrested in the long-term. Violent offenders who participated in the FGC group were 25% less likely to recidivate in comparison to participants who attended non-restorative conferences in the long-term. For non-violent offenders, the gap was much larger with participants that attended FGC being 44% less likely to reoffend than participants who attended non-restorative conferences. The authors note that for future studies, more emphasis should be placed on incidences and seriousness of the re-offenses in the long-term.