VICTORIAN YOUTH GET A VIRTUAL ROLE IN SENTENCING PEERS
Source: Victoria. Attorney General. Media Release
"Young Victorians will help shape a proposal for Australia’s first system of youth peer panels in which young offenders may be judged and sentenced by their peers, Deputy Premier and Attorney-General Rob Hulls announced. Mr Hulls attended Buckley Park Secondary College in Essendon to launch the Virtual Youth Peer Panel, an online program that will allow Victorian students to experience the peer panel process and help determine which model Victoria may adopt. Mr Hulls said the idea of a youth peer panel was based on similar successful programs in the United States and United Kingdom which divert young people who admit to lower-level offences, such as shoplifting or graffiti, away from the court system and reduce re-offending.“We are working with young people to build respect into our society – and the Virtual Youth Peer Panel is an online model of how that could work in our current justice system,” Mr Hulls said."