Differences in how girls and boys respond to family group conference: preliminary research results.

• Author: Maxwell, Gabrielle
• Position: Statistical Data Included

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary findings from an analysis of interviews and file data on a sample of young people who had youth justice family group conferences in New Zealand in 1998. The file data were available on 616 boys and 117 girls and interview data were available from 302 boys and 59 girls.

The file data describe the type of offending that occurred, responses to the offending and the reconviction history of the young people as adults. The interview data describe the young people's background and experiences while growing up, their life since the family group conference and, most importantly, their views of the family group conference. Data have been collected on the memorability of the conference, preparation for it, participation and involvement in it, and agreement with the conference decisions. The feelings of the young person about fairness, respect, remorse, shame, and whether or not they were forgiven and accepted as a person, were explored.

The data here suggest that girls were less responsive than boys to restorative aspects of family group conferences, despite their lesser involvement in criminal offending. Some possible reasons for this paradoxical finding are discussed.

INTRODUCTION

Research from New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere is beginning to demonstrate that family group conferences, particularly when they are well run and managed, have the potential to induce remorse in offenders, and to assist families and young people to jointly take responsibility for repairing harm to victims and taking steps to prevent reoffending. The conferences can produce outcomes that are seen as satisfactory by victims, offenders, families and a range of justice professionals. Young people who participate in conferences report that, compared to court, they find conferences fair, inclusive of them, involve them in decisions, and provide them with opportunities to repair harm and make a new start. Victims, also, are more likely to report that conferences, compared to courts, allow them to be included, involve them in decisions and assist them to put the offence behind them.

However, the fact that a relatively small number of girls offend has made it difficult for researchers to answer questions about whether or not there are important gender issues in relation to family group conferencing, and whether or not girls respond differently from boys when involved in a restorative process. In this paper we report on preliminary findings of a study which incorporates an oversampling of young women for the purpose of answering these questions.

The research we describe here is a large-scale, retrospective study of files on 1,000 family group conferences. We are currently interviewing as many of the young people involved in these conferences as can be traced and consent to participate. This paper presents preliminary findings from an analysis of some of the interview and file data collected by the end of July 2001 on this sample of young people who had family group conferences in New Zealand in 1998:

* Family group conference file data were available on 733 young people -- 616 boys and 117 girls.

* Re-offending information in the adult courts was available for 700 young people -- 590 boys and 110 girls.

* Interview data were available from 361 young people -- 302 boys and 59 girls.

There are some records where complete information was not available so that the actual N in any particular table or for any particular item can fall short of the possible N of 733. In the tables, data highlighted in bold print are those where differences between boys and girls were significant at the 5% level using chi-squared tests.

OFFENDING PATTERNS

Internationally, previous research has demonstrated that offending patterns are often very different for girls and boys, and so are the criminal justice responses to their offending (Anleu 1991, Chesney-Lind 1997, Heidensohn 1996). In this sample, too, we found that girls were more likely to have committed fewer and more minor offences, they were more likely to receive less severe outcomes and they were less likely to reoffend. These findings are detailed in Table 1 (except for reoffending, which appears in Table 4).

The data in Table 1 show that the girls committed different types of offences from the boys. They were more likely to commit minor violent offences than boys. They were less likely to carry out more serious offences of violence, burglaries, car thefts, and property damage and abuse. On average, the girls were more likely than boys to be referred directly for a family group conference rather than being charged in court. All these differences were statistically significant at the 5% level. These findings are consistent with the other data in the table that show that the girls were more likely to have committed offences that were rated as less serious, and commit fewer offences, although neither of these findings reached the 5% level of significance.

PREVIOUS HISTORY

Boys and girls also differed in their backgrounds. Table 2 shows differences in the proportions of girls and boys who had a previous history with the care and protection and youth justice systems.

The data in Table 2 show that girls were more likely than the boys to have been previously notified to the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services as being in need of care and protection (58% of the girls, compared to 41% of the boys). On the other hand, it was the boys who were more likely to have been referred previously for a youth justice family group conference or to answer charges in the Youth Court (although the latter was not statistically significant).

FAMILY GROUP CONFERENCE RECORDS

The records show that for 92% of the conferences a victim of an offence was identified and that a victim was present for 42% of the conferences. At least one family member was present at 97% of family group conferences and 90% of the conferences achieved agreement on the decisions...