DISTRICT COURTS - Courts of New Zealand

The DISTRICT COURTS
NEW ZEALAND
Principal Youth Court
Judge – Andrew Becroft.
Appointed 2001.
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are met, in reducing re-offending and promoting the
wellbeing of young people who have offended.
The FGC is a mix of Māori and western approaches.
In Māori custom and law the concept of wrongdoing
was based on notions that responsibility was collective
rather than individual and that redress was due not just
to any victim but also to the victim’s family. The reasons
for offending were felt to lie not in the individual
but in a lack of balance in the offender’s social and
family environment. The causes of this imbalance,
therefore, had to be addressed in a collective way and, in
particular, the imbalance between the offender and the
victim’s family had to be restored through mediation.
It is intended that responsibility be given to families,
whānau, hapū, iwi and family groups to respond to their
child’s offending, and to deal with it without involving
social workers.
While not a purely Māori model, the CYPF Act owes
much to concerns by Māori about previous methods of
deciding on the fate of young Māori offenders.
The FGC forms the basis of decision-making in the
Youth Court. The two most common situations where
a FGC will be held are: if a young person has not been
arrested but the Police nevertheless wish to lay charges
in Court (a “pre-charge FGC”); and a “court-ordered
FGC” where a young person has been arrested and
appears in the Youth Court, and does not deny the
charge. Relatively few charges in the Youth Court
are denied.
The legislation gives FGCs a wide range of specific
decision-making options. Beyond those options though,
the Act sets no limitations on the imagination and
ideas that flow from the group of people who wish to
produce constructive solutions to the problems of the
young person’s behaviour. This is, in many ways, the
strength of the system.
The Youth Court retains an important supervisory
and monitoring role in respect of agreed FGC plans.
All plans arising out of court-ordered FGCs must be
approved by the Youth Court. FGCs have enormous
scope to consider a wide variety of potential options for
dealing with a young offender. These may include the
young person voluntarily completing an agreed plan,
which may result in an absolute discharge, or one of a
series of formal Youth Court orders, or even conviction
and transfer to the District Court for sentence in the
case of very serious offending.
FGCs are a more inclusive and restorative forum
for decision-making. They should not, however, be
considered a soft-option for young offenders, who find
the process emotionally gruelling and confrontational.
The FGC is made up of the young person, his or her
youth advocate or lawyer, members of the family,
whānau or family group and whoever they invite, the
victim(s) and supporters (or sometimes representative
of the victim(s)), the Police, the youth justice
co-ordinator (YJC) who convenes and runs the
conference, in some cases a CYFS social worker, and
any other person invited by the conference.