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In many cases, youth crime takes an emotional toll on victims, witnesses, friends and communities. Victims of crimes against the person or property crimes may experience a wide range of reactions from anger and bitterness to fear and helplessness. The Youth Justice Renewal Strategy while holding young people accountable for their actions, is also concerned with addressing the issues and concerns of victims in relation to public safety.  From a restorative justice perspective, the most significant aspects of crime is that it victimizes citizens and communities. The juvenile justice system should focus on repairing this harm by ensuring that offenders are held accountable for making amends for the damage and suffering they have caused.  Large segments of the Canadian public consider imprisonment as the only true measure of justice and the only yardstick by which to measure whether society's response is "tough" enough. Yet the reality is that much crime involves conflict and it is not possible to create opportunities to resolve conflict or encourage healing for either party with a focus on imprisonment and incarceration for young offenders. The world over we question the value of raw punishment in socializing our children in an attempt to ensure compliance. We need to apply this same questioning to our public policy: Why hurt people who hurt people.. to show that hurting is wrong ?  The most important questions for restorative justice do not focus on whether to punish or treat offenders. 

The primary questions to be answered are:

            What is the harm ? 
            What needs to be done to make it right ? 
            Who is responsible ? 

Participation by Young Offenders in a Restorative Justice Approach:

Complete restitution to their victims provide meaningful service to repay the debt to their communities face the personal harm caused by their crimes by participating in victim offender mediation or other victim awareness programs complete experiences that increase skills and improve the community are monitored by community adults and juvenile justice providers and supervised to the greatest extent possible in the community improve decision-making skills. 

Restorative justice holds victim concerns as equally important to the process of administering justice and it allows victims a stronger voice and role in that process. 

Participation by Crime Victims in a Restorative Justice Approach:

* Receive support, assistance, information and services

* Receive restitution / reparation from the young offender 

* Victims are involved and encouraged to give input at all
   points in the system as to how the offender will repair the
   harm done 

* Victims have the opportunity to face the offenders and tell
   their story 

* Victims feel satisfied with the justice process

* Victims provide guidance and consultation to juvenile
   justice professionals on planning and advisory groups 

Victims and the community are involved to the greatest extent possible in rehabilitation, community safety initiatives, and holding offenders accountable work with young offenders on local community projects provide support to victims provide support to offenders as mentors, employers, and advocates provide work for offenders to pay restitution to victims and service opportunities that allow offenders to make meaningful contributions to the quality of community life and assist families to support the young offender's obligation to repair the harm and increase competencies advise courts and corrections and play an active role in the young offender's disposition. 

* Project made possible through a grant by Department of 
  Justice Canada and Public Legal Education Information
  Service New Brunswick - Youth Justice Renewal Tool Kit.