This event also launched Juvenile Justice. Youth and Crime in Australia; a new book by Associate Professors Chris Cunneen and Rob White

Launched by the Hon. Carmel Tebutt MLC, Minister for Juvenile Justice

Speakers:
Dr Julia Fionda, University of Southampton
Associate Professor Ido Weijers, Utrecht University

Abstract:
"Fast track" 'justice' for juveniles in England and Wales? by Dr Fionda.

This paper will trace the growing commitment of the New Labour government in England and Wales to managerialist concerns in their youth justice policy since 1997. Some key examples of "fast track" justice will be outlined. Further, the consequences of a youth justice policy which focuses on managerial concerns rather than the needs and concerns of young offenders will be analysed.Julia Fionda is a Senior Lecturer and Director of the Institute of Criminal Justice in the Law Faculty at Southampton University. Her teaching and research interests include youth justice, criminal justice and criminology. She has published a number of articles in these fields and is author of Public Prosecutors and Discretion: A Comparative Study (Oxford, OUP, 1995) and editor of Legal Concepts of Childhood (Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2001).

Abstract:
Trust and Empathy: A Pedagogical Perspective on Family Group Conferencing by Associate Professor Weijers.
This paper will start by telling something about Associate Professor Weijers involvement with Family Group Conferences in the Netherlands. He will then focus on two questions, one concerning a crucial condition for successful conferencing and one concerning the crucial moral emotion in these conferences. A condition that often seems to be passed over in discussing and evaluating FGC's concerns the relationship between the young offender and his or her parents. For a justifiable and for a successful FGC there has to be a basic trust relation in the family. There is some debate on what moral emotion such conferences should aim at - shame, guilt or remorse. By observing conferences and by studying the literature on moral emotions, Associate Professor Weijers concludes that it is first of all the more basic moral emotion of empathy which we should aim at if our goal is prevention.Ido Weijers is Associate Professor of Education of Utrecht University. He publishes widely on juvenile justice, in particular on its history and theory. He has been working on the issue of punishment and education and his recent research interests include juvenile court traditions and restorative justice for juvenile offenders. His most recent book is Punishing Juveniles: Principle and Critique (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2002), edited with Antony Duff.