Case Studies with Questions and Answers
Chapter 07: The Criminal Courts
Josh and Sean, ages 9 and 11 respectively, were brought to juvenile court on aggravated assault charges stemming from an incident in their neighborhood. The previous month they were caught threatening Tony, another 9 year old boy in their neighborhood, with pocket knives and cigarette lighters. Tony had recently gotten a skateboard for his birthday and had been riding around the neighborhood on it. Josh and Sean weren't friends with Tony and decided to take it from him. They found the lighters and pocket knives in Josh's brother's room and walked down to Tony's house. When some other neighborhood boys saw Josh and Sean harassing Tony, they informed their parents who then called the police.
The Assistant District Attorney, Ms. Kelly, assigned to handle the case is not certain what to do with the two boys. According to that juvenile court's precedent, they are too young to be placed on probation, but she feels the seriousness of the situation requires some type of action beyond just dismissing the charges because of their young ages. She has previously worked with a restorative justice facilitator on other charges with older juveniles and wonders if this would be an appropriate action in this case. She discusses the prospect of victim-offender mediation with the facilitator. After speaking, they both decide this case would be a good fit for this type of mediation.
Once Josh and Sean begin the mediation process. They show immediate remorse. They did not really mean to scare Tony and had no intention of hurting him. That type of show of aggression is something they learned from their older brothers. Once Tony explained that his mother hadn't let him play outside since the incident occurred for fear that it would happen again, the boys showed even more remorse. Before that moment they never thought what type of impact their actions would have on Tony beyond the initial harassment.