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Restorative Justice in practice: Findings from 2nd phase of the evaluation of 3 schemes
Restorative justice is a process whereby parties (including victims and offenders) with a stake in a specific offence collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future. This summary presents findings from the second phase of the evaluation of three restorative justice schemes funded by the Home Office. The three schemes dealt mainly with adult offenders and worked at different stages of the criminal justice system. This report looks at the development of the schemes through the period of Home Office funding, describing what happened up to the point at which participants finished their contacts with the scheme.
Title: Restorative Justice in practice: Findings from 2nd phase of the evaluation of 3 schemes
Authors: Joanna Shapland, Anne Atkinson, Helen Atkinson, Becca Chapman, Emily Colledge, James Dignan, Marie Howes, Jennifer Johnstone, Gwen Robinson and Angela Sorsby
Series: Home Office Findings 274
Number of pages: 4
Date published: February 2006
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Key points
The three schemes were generally well implemented; 342 Justice Research Consortium (JRC) cases reached the conference stage; and 50 CONNECT cases and 132 REMEDI cases reached mediation. Though most cases involved adult offenders, victims were prepared to participate. Victim participation was very high where cases involved young offenders .
Where participants were given a choice of restorative justice event, indirect mediation was more commonly chosen than direct mediation or conferencing. However, restricting the choice to a direct meeting with the offender did not reduce participation rates.
In conferences and direct mediations key participants spoke for relatively equal proportions of time. Though emotion was shown in conferences, they were conducted safely, with little aggression. Facilitators were rated by observers as impartial and not dominant.
Offenders admitted a lot or quite a lot of responsibility for the offence in 60% of the 217 JRC conferences observed, with 11% admitting only a little or no responsibility. There was censuring of the offence by participants, but also support for the offender, though little was said about reintegration into the community.
JRC conferences involved discussion about outcomes and the future, but this was less common in direct or indirect mediation. Outcome agreements focused on rehabilitation for offenders.
There was some formal monitoring of outcome agreements by JRC (though not by the other two schemes), with 36% of JRC agreements fully completed and 52% partially completed by the end of the funding period.
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Last update: 24 February 2006