Dr. Gabrielle Maxwell is a psychologist and criminologist. She has a distinguished academic record involving both research and consultancy. She provides policy advice to the United Nations and to Governmental and non-Governmental organisations both within New Zealand and internationally. She is frequently sought as a speaker at international conferences. Until recently she has been Director of the Crime and Justice Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington. Previous posts have been with the Institute of Criminology, Victoria Unviersity of Wellington, Office of the Commissioner for Children, the Department for Justice and the University of Otago. In recent years, much of her research has focussed on restorative justice and the New Zealand youth justice system in particular. Published papers include ones which describe the New Zealand system, evaluate it in terms of meeting its objectives, examine the extent to which family group conferences are effective in reducing reoffending and consider the extent to which they are effective internationally. Her most recent book, an edited volume with Allison Morris, is Restorative Justice for Juveniles: Conferencing, Mediation and Circles: Hart Publishing, 2002. She has just completed a major study of “Achieving effective outcomes in youth justice in New Zealand” which will be published shortly. Other recent work has focussed on family violence, crime prevention and children’s rights.

Leading Edge. One of Gabrielle's current interests has to do with effective practice. The State is responsible for ensuring that children and young people are provided the protections and opportunities guaranteed under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, the state should seek to prevent offending by those at risk and reoffending by those who have already offended. A major goal of her current research is to determine how those acting on behalf of the state can fulfill this responsibility.

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Prison Fellowship International Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, for the content of this biography which first appeared in the Leading Edge at http://www.restorativejustice.org. Any errors or omissions belong to the Centre for Restorative Justice.