The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 put in place new objects, principles, and procedures for youth justice in New Zealand. Both the philosophy underpinning this system and the use of family group conferences exemplify a restorative justice approach that has now been adopted in many other countries. This article describes these changes and presents some of the results of recently published research that examines the extent to which young offenders have been diverted from courts and custody, held accountable for their actions, and had their wellbeing enhanced. It suggests that the New Zealand youth justice system has achieved many but not all of its goals, and that there are still aspects where improvement is possible.
A survey of elderly women was carried out to discover their attitudes towards pet cats. The women were living in publicly-owned pensioner housing in two New Zealand cities. In one city cats were allowed in the pensioners' housing and in the other city they were not. Attitudes towards cats were more positive in the city where cats were allowed, and more positive if pensioners owned a cat, or wished to own one. As positive attitudes towards cats outweighed negative ones, the City Authority which had prohibited cats reversed its policy. There was conflicting evidence about the role of cats in reducing feelings of loneliness. It appears that "loneliness" signifies the loss of many aspects of social interaction and that pets may substitute for only some of these interactions.
This article describes the system of youth justice adopted in New Zealand in 1989, which introduced a number of radical and innovative features including the involvement of young people, families, and victims in deciding how best to deal with the offending. The principle mechanism for achieving this is the family group conference, which replaces or supplements the Youth Court as the principle decision-making forum in most of the more serious cases. Research data are presented that indicate that, to a large extent, this new process is working well and may be having an impact on reconviction figures.
A list of the behavioural criteria of closeness in relationships is derived from a review of the literature. The criteria form the basis for the development of a self-report measure of closeness in relationships. Four studies using the Close Relationships Questionnaire validated the measure and support the contention that similar behaviour is involved in close same-sex friendships, closeness between mothers and their young adult children, and among married couples, both in the early stages of marriage and after 20 years. A scale is also developed to measure marital satisfaction. A high correlation between the Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Close Relationships Questionaire demonstrates a strong association between behaviour and satisfaction with the relationship. A model of change in relationships is offered.
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