Restorative justice
Restorative justice provides an opportunity for victims, offenders and sometimes representatives of the community to communicate about an offence and how to repair the harm caused. Victim participation is always voluntary, and offenders need to have admitted some responsibility for the harm they have caused. This can lead to the offender making reparation - either to the victim, if the victims wishes, or the wider community, for example by repairing property, cleaning premises and removing graffiti. A restorative process can take place in a number of ways, including:
- Indirect - the offender and victim do not meet face to face, but communicate for example through a facilitator, or letters which the facilitator passes back and forth.
- Direct - guided by a facilitator, this can take place with just the victim and offender or in the form of a conference with supporters for each party in attendance. If appropriate community representatives may also attend.
Restorative justice can empower community members to find local solutions to local problems and help to build stronger more cohesive communities. Community members can act as volunteer facilitators, become involved in identifying local reparative projects and act as supporters for victims and offenders participating in restorative justice.
Restorative justice also holds offenders to account, and can allow them to take responsibility for their actions and identify interventions to help them stop offending. International studies and early evidence from the UK about the effects on re-offending is encouraging but inconclusive. There is a need for further research, in particular regarding the effects on re-offending for different offence types.
3 key elements form the basis of restorative justice in practice.
- Responsibility
The need to hold young people to account for their misbehavior and to encourage the development of more responsible behavior in the future - Restoration
Exploring the possibilities of making amends to victims of crime or the community in general i.e. reparation - Re-integration
Seeking to provide the support, assistance and guidance which can help young people to grow into law abiding adults.
There are a number of types or models of restorative justice evolving in practice:
- Victim consultation which gives official recognition that victims have suffered an injustice and are entitled to have their views taken into consideration.
- Victim support or assistance, which is more usually provided by victim support agencies but these, may be contacted by the youth offending team. This support is restorative in nature as it allows the victims ‘to draw the line’ under the offence.
- Letters of apology where sincere and sensitively presented, such apologies allow offenders to show remorse and accept responsibility for the harm.
- Direct reparation (to the victim), which can be in the form of an apology, financial reparation or practical work to repair damage. This requires the consent of all parties and must be supervised at all times.
- Community reparation involves practical reparative work for the benefit of the community, usually where the victim or offender does not consent to other forms of reparation or where there is no identifiable victim.
- Direct or indirect mediation which involves dialogue between the offender and victim, either face to face or through a mediator. This must be voluntary and requires the consent of both.
- Family group conferencing allows for a wide group of participants including family members and supporters for offender and victim, who may themselves have been affected by the offending. It also allows the participation of others, not only professionals, who may be significant to the recovery or rehabilitation processes. The model requires a trained, independent facilitator. The responsibility for devising the plan/programme rests with the offender and the ‘family’ during private planning time. The family is first made aware of any aspects that would not be acceptable in a plan. The plan must then be agreed, usually by the responsible professional, or sent back for the family to reconsideration.
- Community conferencing is run on similar lines to family group conferencing but all the work of the conference is done in the presence of the victim.
