Diverting an Assault

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Courts can still divert cases after police referral. Usually a probation officer has discretion at the point of intake into the juvenile probation system or even afterwards, when a probation officer is assigned the case. For example, a probation officer who had been assigned a male youth charged with assault decided to handle the case as a family group conference. As the facilitator began contacting everyone in preparation for the conference, he realized that the probation officer had made a wise decision in diverting the case from court.

The offender, Alex, hit a smaller boy, David, at his high school. When the facilitator called Alex, the youth sounded confused and defensive. He was confused because months had passed since charges had been filed. Having no experience with police or courts, he assumed that the matter had been dropped. He was defensive because he blamed David for the incident. He explained that David had harassed him all afternoon, emptying a pencil sharpener full of shavings over his head near the end of class period. As they left the classroom, David continued to pursue him down the hall. Alex lost his temper and hit the smaller boy, who fell and hurt his head. Alex, who was a good student and athlete, had been shocked to find himself suspended from high school for several days and charged with assault. He said that he was willing to participate in the conference, especially since it was his only alternative to going to juvenile court, but he still seemed to blame David for the incident. When the facilitator called David's home his mother was irate. She felt that Alex should be punished by the courts and was not happy about the family group conference. When the facilitator explained the advantages of the conference that she would a get a chance to say how she felt directly to Alex—she eventually agreed, if her son would want to participate.

In his phone conversation with David, the facilitator learned that Alex had been accurate in describing the events that preceded the assault. Admitting his harassing behavior, David insisted that Alex should not have hit him and was willing to participate in the conference. The facilitator decided to visit Alex and his parents at their home. He knew that David's mother's moral indignation and anger would skyrocket if Alex tried to blame her son. He spent almost an hour encouraging Alex to take responsibility for the assault, even if he felt he was provoked by David. At some point Alex began to realize that he had responded to the other youth's annoying behavior by hitting him, even though he had other choices. So the responsibility for the assault was his, not David's. At the conference David's mother was still irate, even though the offender admitted his responsibility at the outset. She said that her family would never have pressed charges if Alex had at least apologized. Alex claimed that he did apologize, the very next day. The victim's mother looked at her son who hung his head and said, "I forgot to tell you." From that point on the conference went rather smoothly toward resolution, bringing to a satisfactory conclusion an incident that did not belong in the criminal justice system.

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