Annual of social work, Vol. 22 No. 1, 2015.
Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.3935/ljsr.v22i1.32
SOCIAL NETWORK CONFERENCES: CONFERENCING WITH JUVENILE OFFENDERS IN THE AUSTRIAN PROBATION SERVICE
Hansjörg Schlechter
; Neustart, Probation services, Austria
Abstract
From the year 2012, the Social Work Service in Austria introduced a new technique for working in the field of probation services. Subsequently, the Federal Ministry of Justice approved the funds necessary for the technique of "conferencing" to be applied in the probation services of Vienna, Upper Austria, Styria and Carinthia. Austrian social workers developed this new technique on the basis of the Family Group Conferencing technique used in Australia and adapted it to the needs of restorative justice. When applied to restorative justice, this technique, originally developed for families, is grounded in the idea that not only do social networks have the potential to resolve a problem, but also, and more importantly, to give the participants access and help they needed in the first place. The most important change that this type of conferencing introduces is the fact that the elements of social control are shared by all participants in the process, and are not exerted by only one participant, usually the strongest.
Keywords
social network conferences; juvenile offenders; probation
Hrčak ID:
139995
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2015.
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