Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Youth Court: Transforming Justice Practices

1. Therapeutic jurisprudence in the youth courtAIJA Youth Justice and Child Protection Conference, 3rd April 2006 Professor Kate WarnerFaculty of LawUniversity of Tasmania

2. Critique of traditional criminal justice • Ineffectiveness in terms of reform and crime prevention • Theft of conflicts from the central parties to the dispute • Failure to hold offenders to account or to respond to the needs of victims • Reliance on punishment: harm + harm = more harm, not less • Remoteness in time, space and social relations from crimes and the problems and people which influence their occurrence • Reliance upon formal rather than informal social control • Insensitivity to cultural and ethnic diversity

3. New paradigms of justice • Restorative justice • Indigenous justice • Therapeutic jurisprudence

4. Restorative justice …. ‘a process whereby all the parties with a stake in a particular offence come together to resolve collectively how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future’ (Marshall, 1996:37). …. ‘it is about restoring victims, restoring offenders and restoring communities’ (Braitwaite 1999:1)

5. Elements of Restorative Justice • Stakeholders:victims, offenders, families and their communities • Participatory and deliberative processes • Restorative outcomes

6. Values of restorative justice • Participation • Respect for all participants • Empowerment (non-domination) • Commitment to agreed outcomes • Flexibility and responsiveness of processes and outcomes • Forgiveness and apology

7. RJ practices • Conferencing • Sentencing circles • Victim-offender mediation • Reparative probation

8. RJ in summary • Reconciliation • Reparation • Reintegration Not: Regimentation, Responsibility and Retribution Or: Rehabilitation, Resocialisation or Remedial Treatment

9. Indigenous Justice …. a variety of contemporary justice practices in which indigenous people have a central role in responding to crime… It can be seen as a way to rebuild Indigenous communities and to redress the destruction of the Indigenous peoples’ culture and social organisation brought about by colonialism and State violence (Daly, Hayes and Marchetti, 2006).

10. Indigenous justice practices • Urban courts: • the Nunga Court • the Koori Court • the Murri Court • Circle Courts • Community Justice Groups participation in sentencing

11. IJ courts: common elements • An offender must be indigenous and have entered a guilty plea • The charge is one normally heard in a Magistrates’ Court • The offence must have occurred in the geographical area covered by the court • A magistrate retains the ultimate power in sentencing a the offender, while seeking the advice of the Indigenous Elders

12. Therapeutic jurisprudence Therapeutic Jurisprudence concentrates on the law's impact on emotional life and psychological well-being. It is a perspective that regards the law (rules of law, legal procedures, and roles of legal actors) itself as a social force that often produces therapeutic or anti-therapeutic consequences. It does not suggest that therapeutic concerns are more important than other consequences or factors, but it does suggest that the law's role as a potential therapeutic agent should be recognized and systematically studied. (International Network of Therapeutic Jurisprudence)

13. TJ practices • Problem solving courts • Drug courts (youth drug courts) • Teen courts • Domestic violence courts • Mental health courts • Sexual offence/ homeless persons’ courts • A new way of judging • Corrections and administrative tribunals

14. Problem solving courts: distinctive features • Non-traditional approach • On-going judicial supervision. • Integration of service provision • Direct engagement with defendants • Non-adversarial approach

15. TJ principles: a new way of judging … use processes to promote the positive involvement of participants in the court processes and thereby promote respect between judicial officer and participants, including actively listening to participants, courteously allowing them to fully present their case and acknowledge their position …. Extending the judicial role to a search for solutions to an offender’s cycle of offending (quoted by Jelena Popovic 2003).

16. Evaluations Positive outcomes from the intervention (AIC, 2004):  reductions in drug use and offending both during the program and after completion;  improvements in the health and well-being of participants;  financial benefits in terms of reduced law enforcement, prison and court costs; and  social benefits: long-term reductions in drug use, increased employment and re-uniting families

17. Differences • Different histories, each emerged independently • Conferencing: policy makers, administrators and practitioners • Indigenous justice: Indigenous groups, judicial officers (& policy makers) • Therapeutic justice: activism of judicial officers in the US • Different sites of activity • Role and participation of victims • Different offender focus

18. Similarities in the criminal justice context • All at the penalty phase • All emphasise improved communication and relational interaction • Emphasis is placed on using persuasion and support to encourage offenders to be law abiding • Emphasis on procedural justice • Incaceration is a penalty of last resort • All assume more time is required in each case

19. TJ and the Youth Court? • Back to a welfare approach in a new guise? • Both utilise psychiatry, psychology and social work • Problems with the new wave of specialised courts • Plea of guilty • Expensive and fashionable? • Willing judicial officers

20. Long term future for TJ • Adopting deeper processes and values underpinning problem courts: • trust • procedural fairness • narrative competence • recognition of the role of cognition and action etc • Judicial supervision of orders

21. Thank You Professor Kate WarnerFaculty of LawUniversity of Tasmania