Prospects of family group conferencing with youth sex offenders and their victims in South Africa

This chapter explores family group conferencing with youth sex offenders within a residential diversion framework, and draws on the findings of a broader study which the author conducted in this area of restorative justice practice in South Africa. The chapter starts by looking at the literature on family group conferencing from the international to the South African context. In exploring the prospects of family group conferencing with youth sex offenders, the author focuses on some of the major concerns which have been raised in the literature regarding the applicability of this approach to dealing with youth sex offenders, namely: the perceptions that family group conferences are a soft option for dealing with youth sex offenders; family group conferences are inappropriate where the victim is too young and unable or unwilling to participate in the conference, and that coercion when ensuring victims’ participation in the family group conferences is antithetical to restorative justice. The chapter also focuses on closure and reconciliation between the youth sex offenders and their victims as one of the most important long-term goals of family group conferencing. The achievement of the long-term goals of family group conferencing will require a paradigm shift from interventions that only focus on the treatment of the "offender" to those which prioritise the restoration of relationships which have been harmed by an offence through the facilitation of dialogue between parties in conflict. The author believes that such a philosophical shift in practice framework not only will it have long-term benefits to the parties in conflict but will also help to promote healthy families and communities in general