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justice alerts Th Made in America: e Global Youth Justice Movement Scott Bernard Peterson With more than 1,200 local Youth and Teen Court programs in America—Europe, Australia, Asia, and Canada are now implementing this model to harness the positive peer influence of youth volunteers to reduce juvenile crime. K aren, 13, and her brother David, 17, were arrested for stealing two music CDs from the local music store. They admitted their guilt to the arresting police officer, who then presented them with a choice. Did they want to proceed in the youth court program and be sentenced by a jury of their peers— including some youth who were previously sentenced by their peers? Or did they want to proceed in the traditional juvenile justice system where they would appear in juvenile court with their punishment determined solely by an adult judge? In the case of siblings “Karen” and “David,” the guilty teens received sentences of 35 hours of community service, were required to write letters of apology to the music store owner, and had to serve as jurors at the completion of their peer-imposed community service sentence. Once they completed their sentence, they were no longer involved in the justice system, unless, that is, they chose to serve their community by becoming youth court volunteers themselves. The Global Youth Court Movement For an increasing and record number of communities in America and now in other countries, youth courts are providing a positive alternative to the juvenile justice system with significant and unexpected favorable outcomes. Youth court is most commonly identified as a juvenile justice program, given that the vast majority of youth cases referred are from police, probation, juvenile and family court, and even many of the school referrals for crimes and offenses. Youth courts in America are also called teen courts, peer courts, student courts, and youth peer courts. The first European youth court, called “peer panel,” was launched in Preston, England, in September of 2007. Australia is currently planning the launch of the first youth court, calling it “youth peer panel,” and Japan uses the name “teen court.” Regardless of the name, these peer justice and youth empowerment programs have much in common. Since 1994, the number of local youth court programs has grown from approximately 78 local programs to more than 1,200 local youth court programs in America, with more than 100 in various developmental stages. Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia all have Youth Court programs, with Connecticut being the only state without such a program. This rapid growth in the number of local youth court programs is a textbook example of a local grass-roots movement. With the exception of a few states, the vast majority of this 48 | reclaiming children and youth www.reclaimingjournal.com