The Proper Intersection of Restorative Justice and Public Safety in Juvenile Cases.

• Author: Backstrom, James C.

James C. Backstrom has been the Dakota County Attorney in Hastings, Minnesota since 1987. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the National District Attorneys Association since 1992 and chaired that Association's Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (later known as the Juvenile Justice and Family Law Committee) for 12 years.

Restorative justice models first began to be discussed in criminal justice circles in America during the late 1970's, with implementation of some restorative justice programming beginning over the next two decades. Often referred to as "Balanced and Restorative Justice" (BARJ) today, such programs provide a framework for responding to crime that focuses upon identifying the harm done to the crime victim and the community and determining what needs to be done to repair the harm. Under a pure restorative justice model, crime is no longer viewed simply as an offense against the state for which punishment is due to the offender.

The BARJ approach involves the juvenile court system giving balanced consideration to three goals: community safety, offender accountability, and competency development in the youthful offender. (1) Offender accountability focuses on accountability to both the community and crime victim. (2) Competency development typically involves delivering restorative, skill-building services to youthful offenders to equip them to live safely and crime-free in the future. (3)

The National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) has long been supportive of a coordinated and balanced approach to juvenile crime. This includes recognizing the importance of nurturing and responsible parenting, promoting core family values, and support of intervention and prevention initiatives focusing on the serious negative impact of violence, abuse, neglect, crime and drugs upon the lives of youth. Since 2002, the NDAA has acknowledged that a coordinated and balanced approach to juvenile justice should emphasize provisions for community safety, offender accountability and competency development. While America's prosecutors, therefore, support many of the concepts of restorative justice, i.e., protecting the community from harm, meeting the needs of crime victims and ensuring offender accountability and competency development so that offenders can re-enter the community capable of pursuing non-criminal paths, most would likely emphasize the importance of proper levels of accountability for the harm caused in a particular...