ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses seventeen cases of sibling sexual abuse, six of which were finalised by a diversionary youth justice conference; and eleven sentenced in the Youth Court. It considers how to build that evidence base: one that can systematically assess any one justice mechanism (such as conferences) or compare it to others (criminal sentencing, victim impact statements, and state-based compensation or financial assistance schemes). The chapter describes elements of victims' justice interests: participation, voice, validation, vindication and offender accountability-taking responsibility. Godden (2013) assessed and compared three mechanisms (criminal prosecution, restorative justice (RJ) and civil litigation) in responding to sexual violence. The chapter introduces and applies a new method to assess and compare conferences with other justice mechanisms, from a victim's perspective: a systematic empirical assessment of multiple cases of sexual victimisation. Victim representatives, who had dual roles in representing their offending and victimised children, faced difficulties in carrying out these roles.
