Restorative justice: The case for a Child Justice Act1

Juvenile justice, sometimes called child justice, is often perceived as the natural playground for restorative justice. Justice concerns the proper ordering of things and persons within a society. In this respect restorative justice refers to the implementation of a theory of justice that focuses on crime and wrongdoing as perpetrated against the individual or community rather then the state. The wide and deep implementation of restorative justice principles, in particular when dealing with young people, has been recognised as the ‘green’ way to go. This is so, because the principles of restorative justice do not, either actually or symbolically, reduce incidents otherwise recognised as offences/crimes and, which give rise to societal reaction and censure, to a bundle of predefined and pre-structured rights relations. A broader focus, which includes as the case may be the perspective of individuals, encompasses the social environment from which a conflict emerged.2 In this process, in which young people are recognised as persons in formation, and where the emphasis is on reparation, also with regard to victims, the full potential for personal development is maintained.