Recently presented at a Regent Law class was a presentation on Teen Courts, an alternative disposition program for first time minor offense juvenile offenders. This opportunity offers the offending students peer review of their offense toward restorative options to keep them out of the criminal justice system. These teen courts can be a great resource for positive juvenile justice initiatives.
To learn more download and review Teen Courts: Empowerment through Child Participation, in International Perspectives and Empirical Findings on Child Participation (Tali Gal and Benedetta Duramy Eds.) (Oxford U. Press 2015), also available here, and see also Lynne Marie Kohm and Alison R. Haefner, Empowering Love and Respect for Child Offenders Through Therapeutic Jurisprudence: The Teen Courts Example, Sociology and Anthropology 4(4): 212-221 (2016).
When kids are able to participate in their own justice decisions they can be empowered toward respect moving forward. That’s what family restoration is all about.
Florida uses a similar program for mostly first and even subsequent offending teens. The program requires the teen to serve a certain number of times on a jury for teen court and do community service. Depending on what the teen did, they may also have to write an essay or attend TRIAD, which is a school for teens who have been suspended or expelled from their own. I was able to get involved because the Teen Court program in Sarasota allowed students to volunteer as teen attorneys or jury members for community service hours. It was a great way to be introduced to the court system and actively participate.
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