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Existing research evidence suggests that restorative justice
programmes can have a positive effect on reducing reoffending, as well
as producing generally high levels of satisfaction from those
participating in such programmes. However, much of this research has
been based on small schemes, has lacked well-matched control groups, or
else has been conducted overseas. Consequently, we do not know the
extent to which such results might be replicable on a wider scale in
England and Wales. Furthermore, there is little information available
about the potential of extending restorative justice programmes to adult
offenders.
The Crime Reduction Programme (CRP), which was launched in January
1999 with three year funding from April 1999, includes restorative
justice as one of the three topics in its sentencing theme. The aim here
is to “examine the effectiveness of some current restorative justice
schemes in reducing crime and use that knowledge to develop new, more
effective schemes”. While reducing offending is the principal aim of
this work, the other traditional aims of restorative justice practice -
such as better representing the interests of the parties involved than
the conventional criminal justice process is thought to do - remain very
important.
The first part of this CRP work is now complete. The final report
from a study of some existing restorative justice schemes is due to be
published early in 2001. For the next phase of the work, we now intend
to fund the development and evaluation of new restorative justice
schemes (or expansions of existing ones). The results of the evaluation
will inform future Home Office thinking on restorative justice. Funding
is available from April 2001, although money for start-up costs
(recruitment and training) will be available before then. Schemes must
ensure that they are capable of delivering sufficient high quality data
for a robust evaluation
For more information, see the full prospectus in HTML.
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