Exploring competency development: it’s the helping part

Abstract

Restorative justice is an operating philosophy that, while used in other countries for many years, began being implemented in the United States in the early and mid 1990s. This paper takes a look at one part of the restorative justice philosophy, attempts to instill conceptual clarity, and examines one state’s process of implementing competency development programs and the effects that state has seen. In addition, five domains of competency development are explored as well as practical means of attaining the goals of each domain. The paper concludes with specific ways of measuring the outcomes of competency development, along with the progress that one commonwealth’s juvenile justice system has made.

Keywords:

• restorative justice
• competency development
• juvenile justice

Notes

1. For example, an increased use of statutory exclusion to exclude violent and chronic juvenile offenders from the jurisdiction of juvenile court, the fingerprinting of juveniles, public access to delinquency hearings.

2. http://youthspeakcollective.wordpress.com