ABSTRACT
From its origins in New Zealand in 1989 to its implementation in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, the family group conference is influencing the way social workers do business. Decreasing the role of the professional and increasing the role of the family in dealing with significant decisions, the family group conference changes social welfare from something that agencies do collaboratively with people. However powerful the family group conference experience, it would be naive to suggest that a single restorative intervention can dramatically alter the behavioral patterns of delinquent and high-risk young people. As with the changes in social welfare, the conference process changes justice from something that courts do unilaterally to or for people to something that is done collaboratively with people. Punishment in response to crime and other wrongdoing is the prevailing practice, not just in criminal justice systems, but in schools, families, and workplaces. Those who fail to punish are often labeled as "permissive."
