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Book Review: 40 Cases: Restorative Justice and Victim-Offender Mediation

Document Cited authorities 1 Cited in Related
Vincent
DOI10.1177/147322540400400108
Published date01 April 2004
Date01 April 2004
AuthorBrian Williams
Subject MatterArticles
Yojulay 64
Book Reviews
Of course the Youth Justice Board has produced its own assessment tool, ASSET,
and accompanying guidance.2 Calder is very critical of this parallel development though,
noting its tighter timescales and its role in triggering referral to social services (C and
H, p29). The recent Consultation Paper about children at risk, Every Child Matters, has
proposed that a ‘common assessment framework’ should be developed drawing on the
Framework, ASSET, the Connexions’ tool and also the SEN and health visitor codes
of practice for use by all professionals ‘in the frontline’.3 Such a change might
emphasise the need for members of youth offending teams to engage with the
principles of the Framework. In that case, the wealth of detailed guidance and
assessment tools to be found in these two texts will help to encourage child-centred
(rather than simply offence-focused) assessments, taking the ‘ecological’ approach
underpinning the assessment triangle in the Framework (C and H, pp5–9; also W and
B, pp14–16).4
These texts are, however, very different. One is a conceptually coherent, well
structured and well written text which talks directly to ‘you’ the practitioner or trainee
(W and B) and which locates its material within a wide range of practical issues and
academic debates and research. The other (C and H) is a much larger volume (387pp
in comparison with 151pp) which provides a detailed resource with chapters written
by specialists on specific aspects of practice. The only problem with this text is that,
whilst most chapters are around the average length of 18 pages, the second chapter,
which provides an excellent critique of the Framework, reads as too long at 58 pages.
Both texts provide material focused on areas, such as disability, mental health and
discrimination, where the youth justice system should develop more expertise and
interest, and the chapter on domestic violence (in C and H) is a ‘must’ read for
anybody. These books are, then, valuable additions to the literature on...

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