March 2012 - ABC Radio National
Transcript from ABC Radio National PM show with Mark Colvin
MARK COLVIN: New research looks like dashing the hopes of those who thought making criminals confront their victims would help stop them reoffending.
The New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics has analysed a program that brings young offenders face to face with victims of crime.
And it says it makes no difference to the rate at which they go on to commit more crimes.
Eleanor Bell reports.
ELEANOR BELL: Boot camp, cautions and conferencing are just some of the options employed to bring down youth recidivism.
But not all of them work according to the Bureau of Crime of Statistics and Research in New South Wales.
For instance, young offenders made to face up to their victims will re-offend at the same rate as those who go through the Children's Court
The Bureau looked at almost 1,000 young people who were referred to a Youth Justice Conference.
They compared them to the same number of young people who were dealt with by that state's Children's Court.
The Bureau's Dr Don Weatherburn.
DON WEATHERBURN: The offenders in both groups were matched on a whole range of factors that are important to reoffending. And we found no difference at all between the two groups; they were equally likely to reoffend, they were equally likely to commit a more serious or less serious offence. They took the same time to reoffend and they committed the same number of re-offences within the limits of chance.
So it doesn't appear that referring young people to a Youth Justice Conference reduces their risk of reoffending.
ELEANOR BELL: In fact, around 65 per cent were re-convicted for another offence within two years.
Were there any surprises in the data?
DON WEATHERBURN: No really. We've looked at circle sentencing for Aboriginal offenders, for example, and found that had no effect. We also looked at forum sentencing, which is another similar program for young offenders, where they sit down with their victims and found no effect.
So this is the third study we've done which has found no effect for this arrangement, where offenders and victims meet.
ELEANOR BELL: David Porter is from the Redfern Legal Centre in Sydney.
He says the study's results need to be taken in context.
DAVID PORTER: Youth Justice Conferences should not be scrapped on the basis of this one paper. It was looking at a very specific question and did not look into the components of Youth Justice Conferences and ways that they could be improved.
Indeed this is just the starting point for a discussion about how we need to deal with young people within the criminal justice system. And there are already large questions being asked this year in terms of reform of bail law and looking at the Young Offenders Act as a whole.
ELEANOR BELL: The Bureau's Dr Don Wheatherburn.
DON WEATHERBURN: There is a whole range of programs that are effective in reducing juvenile reoffending. They all have in common the fact that they address the underlying causes of juvenile involvement in crimes. So, for example, they deal with adolescent problems of impulse control or with drug and alcohol abuse or with poor parenting or poor school performance or unemployment.
It's the programs that address these underlying causes that appear to be effective.
ELEANOR BELL: And he argues there are community benefits to this type of program.
DON WEATHERBURN: It works in the sense that it makes the victims of crimes or victims who participate in these processes much more satisfied, less angry about the offence. But it doesn't work to reduce juvenile re-offending, because it doesn't really addresses the causes of juvenile offending.
MARK COLVIN: Dr Don Weatherburn from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research in New South Wales speaking to Eleanor Bell.
Listen to the interview on the ABC PM website.
