Published works

In response to the ‘Black Christmas’ bushfire crisis in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, the Premier of NSW called for the utilisation of Youth Justice Conferencing to ‘confront young people with the harm they had caused’ by their misuse of fire. Legislative amendments were subsequently enacted to particularise Youth Justice Conferencing outcome plans to fire-related offences. To facilitate the inclusion of fire-specific outcome plan tasks, Juvenile Justice NSW and Fire and Rescue NSW engaged in a Memorandum of Understanding to administer firefighter involvement in Youth Justice Conferencing. Despite operating for over a decade, this approach has only recently attracted empirical inquiry. As part of a broader study, interviews with program developers, conference convenors, program coordinators, and local firefighters were conducted. Content analysis revealed five major concepts that suggest firefighter involvement in Youth Justice Conferencing has implications for fire prevention.