A Qualitative Exploration of Procedural Justice for Youth Court Participants

• In Event: Perceptions of Courts in an International Context

Abstract

The importance of procedural justice for law-abiding behavior is well established within the criminological research literature. Restorative justice interventions promise to improve participants’ experience of justice, which, according to Tyler’s (1988) procedural justice theory and Sherman’s (1993) defiance theory,should curb reoffending. Across the United States youth courts have emerged as an alternative to conventional justice procedures for youth who have engaged in criminal behavior. Youth courts involve youth volunteers acting as judge and jury in order to decide the appropriate sanction for the young offender. The rationale of youth courts is that they increase procedural legitimacy because the accused are being tried by members of a similar age group. The research literature validating this claim is limited. Qualitative interviews with youth court participants, their parents, and staff in Tennessee were conducted to assess whether youth courts do indeed improve a sense of procedural justice among young offenders. Youth courts were developed from the same court model as the conventional justice system, which begs the question of whether or not youth courts actually reduce social marginalization and stigma and increase perceived fairness.

Author

• Kyle Ward Letteney, University of Tennessee