Is there any evidence that early intervention with responsible persons has positive outcomes?
In Australia and New Zealand, restorative justice conferencing has been used with juvenile sexual assault offenders. Evaluations of conferencing outcomes have shown that re-offending rates were reduced relative to re-offending rates of court participants. In Australia, furthermore, early treatment intervention post-conference proved the essential factor in the reduced rate of re-offending (Daly, 2003). This finding regarding early treatment is confirmed by the research literature in general, as better outcomes are expected if treatment is initiated early in the course of an offending career and retention is ensured (Burdon & Gallagher, 2002).
