Introduction

A number of highly publicized and disturbing school shootings and homicides in several communities across the United States have focused the attention of the public and policymakers on the issues of youth violence and school safety. Although important, these issues tend to divert juvenile justice officials' attention from a separate problem: delinquency committed by very young children. In 1999, U.S. police departments reported 218,300 arrests of persons younger than age 13.¹ The most recent juvenile court statistics available indicate that offenders under the age of 13 account for about 16 percent of all individuals referred to juvenile courts (Puzzanchera et al., 2000). Earlier research has shown that children entering juvenile court at such a young age have a very high risk of continued offending. For example, approximately 60 percent of youth ages 10–12 who are referred to juvenile court subsequently return to court. For youth referred to juvenile court a second time, the odds of returning to court again increase to more than 80 percent (Snyder and Sickmund, 1995). However, because these youth typically have not committed a particularly serious or violent offense, and because children this young usually have not accumulated a long record, they do not generally receive a great deal of attention from juvenile justice officials (Snyder and Sickmund, 1999).

Recently reported findings of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP's) Study Group on Very Young Offenders confirm the seriousness of early offending behavior. Study Group researchers report, for example, that the risk of becoming a more serious offender is two to three times higher for child delinquents (those ages 7–12) than for later onset offenders (Loeber, Farrington, and Petechuk, in press).² Child delinquents also account for a relatively high proportion of some types of offenses. They represent 1 in 3 juvenile arrests for arson, 1 in 5 juvenile arrests for vandalism, and 1 in 12 juvenile arrests for violent crime (Loeber and Farrington, 2000). For some young offenders, early involvement in status offenses and delinquency is a stepping stone in a pathway to serious, violent, and chronic offending. Communities should not ignore the delinquent acts and problem behaviors of young offenders in the hope that they will "grow out of it" (Loeber, Farrington, and Petechuk, in press). Because such young offenders have a high likelihood of reoffending, communities should develop and implement effective early interventions for very young offenders.

One form of early intervention involves the use of restorative justice conferences. Such conferences, sometimes referred to as "family group conferences," have become common in Australia and New Zealand and are being used increasingly throughout the world (Thames Valley Police, 1999). Although some jurisdictions use restorative justice conferences for a variety of offenses, including criminal offenses, restorative justice conferences may be particularly appropriate for very young offenders. Advocates argue that the conferences offer a meaningful response to youthful offending without consuming significant court resources.

In 1996, OJJDP provided funds to the Hudson Institute, a public policy research organization in Indianapolis, IN, to evaluate the use of restorative justice conferences for young offenders. This funding was awarded through OJJDP's Field-Initiated Research and Evaluation Program. This Bulletin describes the findings of the Hudson Institute's evaluation.

Restorative Justice Conferences as an Early Response to Young Offenders	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • August 2001