Bethlehem Police Family Group Conferencing Project

• NCJ Number: 173725
• Date Published: 1996
• Author(s): P McCold; J Stahr
• Length: 22 pages
• Grant Number(s): 95-IJ-CX-0042
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored

Annotation

This paper reports on a continuing experimental research program to evaluate the implementation, operation and effects on participants and the police of police-based Family Group Conferences in a mid-sized American city.

Abstract

Both violent and property offending juveniles were randomly assigned to conferencing or traditional court referral. Cases being conferenced and those referred to court were compared regarding restitution compliance and offender recidivism rates. Participants' perceptions and satisfaction of both groups were collected, and changes in police attitude and culture were measured using a matched-cases pre- and post-implementation design. Observational evaluations of conference conveners' styles were gathered to assess the capacity of individual officers to interact with offenders and victims in a non-directive manner. The study included analysis of juvenile case processing 2 years before implementation and for the 2 years of program operation to measure any net-widening or downstream processing effects. Notes, tables, references