Youth development circles

Restorative justice circles or conferences have shown considerable promise in the criminal justice system as a more decent and effective way of dealin g with youthful law breaking than punishment. The social movement for resto rative justice has a distinctive analysis of the crisis of community and th e possibility of community in late modernity. This paper raises the questio n of whether this approach might fruitfully be applied to the holistic deve lopment of the learning potential of the young and the whole range of probl ems young people encounter-drug abuse, unemployment, homelessness, suicide, among others-in the transition from school to work.