Both Australia and New Zealand have developed crime prevention and response strategies specifically to address youth offending. This chapter explores one form of restorative justice (conferencing) and questions why this type of response to youthful offending may have had limited success in achieving key aims. It links the requirements and expectations of restorative justice processes with the potentially limited emotional and language development of youth to show that sometimes unrealistic expectations by some restorative justice conference participants can have adverse outcomes for youth. The chapter concludes with the suggestion that better knowledge of young offenders’ language capacities will likely lead to better restorative justice conference outcomes for both young offenders and victims of crime.