Violent Crimes

Studies have shown that restorative justice processes may be more useful for victims and offenders after violent crimes than less serious ones. These articles and resources explore that counter-intuitive finding and other matters concerning restorative justice and victims and perpetrators of violent crime.

Restorative Justice 'can be justified' in serious cases

from the article by Jack Sommers in Police Oracle: Frontline officers have a judgement call to make when deciding whether victims of more serious offences would benefit from Restorative Justice (RJ) rather than a prosecution, a senior officer has said. ACC Garry Shewan, who leads on justice and community resolutions for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), said there was not a “simple formula” and there was no prescribed list of offences for which Restorative Justice could be used.

Teenage rape prevention campaign launched

from the article on Pirate FM News: Pirate FM has learnt nine under eighteens have been convicted of sex offences on younger teenagers in Cornwall and Devon over the last year. But almost thirty were dealt with by restorative justice, where the victim and attacker work out a solution together.

'Why I must speak out to stop my rapist being freed'

from the article by David Barrett in the Telegraph: After Dr Claire Chung was raped by a stranger at knifepoint, she took two extraordinary and courageous steps. Firstly, she confronted him face to face after his conviction, as part of a programme known as “restorative justice”. Then she waived her anonymity, speaking of the decision she took to face the man who had attacked her. Now she is speaking out again, this time to voice her concerns at a parole system which could free Stephen Allen Gale early next year.

'Why I must speak out to stop my rapist being freed'

from the article by David Barrett in the Telegraph: After Dr Claire Chung was raped by a stranger at knifepoint, she took two extraordinary and courageous steps. Firstly, she confronted him face to face after his conviction, as part of a programme known as “restorative justice”. Then she waived her anonymity, speaking of the decision she took to face the man who had attacked her. Now she is speaking out again, this time to voice her concerns at a parole system which could free Stephen Allen Gale early next year.

'Why I must speak out to stop my rapist being freed'

from the article by David Barrett in the Telegraph: After Dr Claire Chung was raped by a stranger at knifepoint, she took two extraordinary and courageous steps. Firstly, she confronted him face to face after his conviction, as part of a programme known as “restorative justice”. Then she waived her anonymity, speaking of the decision she took to face the man who had attacked her. Now she is speaking out again, this time to voice her concerns at a parole system which could free Stephen Allen Gale early next year.

Rape

One personally perceived flaw with mandatory restorative justice is that not all offenders (especially rapists pertaining to the power/anger based motivations of rape) would be [...]

In sentencing criminals, is Norway too soft? Or are we too harsh?

from the article by Liliana Segura in The Nation: ....“Western Europeans regard 10 or 12 years as an extremely long term, even for offenders sentenced in theory to life,” he said. Today, there are more than 41,000 people serving life without parole in the United States compared to fifty-nine in Australia, forty-one in England and thirty-seven in the Netherlands. That’s according to a study released this spring, which found that we are “in the minority of countries using several sentencing practices, such as life without parole, consecutive sentences, juvenile life without parole, juvenile transfer to adult courts, and successive prosecution of the same defendant by the state and federal government.”

Atlantic Article

Mr Fisher's article is very interesting. However I believe this is an appropriate response to its shortfalls: http://www.thenation.com/bl[…]oo-soft-or-are-we-too-harsh

How we forgave my son's vicious killer: Parents whose teenage boy was beaten to death by thugs come face-to-face with offenders

from the article by Deborah Arthurs in the Daily Mail: In a meeting arranged by the Restorative Justice programme and mediators at the charity CALM (Confidential And Local Mediation), the couple met with two of the three perpetrators responsible for the crime when they came to the end of their sentences. And in a moment of heart-wrenching humanity that brings tears to the eyes, Ray says that when one of the offenders entered the room, all he wanted to do was hug him.

A different justice: Why Anders Breivik only got 21 years for killing 77 people

from the article by Max Fisher on The Atlantic: Although Breivik will likely be in prison permanently -- his sentence can be extended -- 21 years really is the norm even for very violent crimes. The much-studied Norwegian system is built on something called restorative justice. Proponents of this system might argue that it emphasizes healing: for the victims, for the society, and, yes, for the criminal him or herself.

Colorado Victim chooses restorative justice and meets with offender

by Lisa Rea This is an excellent article, well written with the right emphasis and explanation of restorative justice, telling the story of Sharletta Evans. She chose to meet the man who killed her young son. This was made possible after the passage of legislation carried by Representative Pete Lee.

Restorative justice for veterans: The San Francisco Sheriff 's Department's Community of Veterans Engaged in Restoration (COVER)

from the article by Sunny Schwartz and Leslie Levitas: ....Veterans represent a rapidly growing segment of the jail population whose characteristics mirror those of the general jail population and include histories of substance abuse, inconsistent work histories and challenges related to maintaining family relationships. Like most prisoners, they receive few services while incarcerated to address the myriad of health, mental health, and psychosocial issues that contribute to their incarceration and pose challenges upon release. The military discharge status of most justice-involved vets—less than honorable—makes them ineligible for many of the benefits and services offered by the Veterans Administration (VA).

gun violence & restorative justice

Thank you for your comments. I cannot speak for Nick and Amanda Wilcox whose daughter, Laura, was killed by a mentally ill man but I [...]

Laura's Law

Lisa and others, as a current student of Criminal Justice it has been my belief all along that our justice system has left behind the [...]

Denver woman feels the power of restorative justice after son murdered

from the article by Kevin Simpson in the Denver Post: ....When legislation last year cleared the way for a pilot program in restorative justice with the Colorado Department of Corrections, Evans — who had testified on behalf of the measure — embraced the opportunity to go first. She and her older son Calvin Hurd, who was 6 when gunshots peppered the car where he sat sleeping with his brother, began more than six months of preparation for a direct dialogue with Johnson. Part of that involved revisiting the crime. Evans had driven with her two children to a northeast Denver duplex to pick up her grandniece because there had been a drive-by there the previous night. She left her sons in the car.

Ted Wachtel on Nils Christie's plenary at European Forum

from Restorative Practices Blog: Today I attended the first day of the European Forum for Restorative Justice Conference that’s being held in Helsinki, Finland. It was nice to hear Nils Christie give a plenary speech. Nils Christie is now an 84-year-old emeritus professor from Norway whose famous article, “Conflict As Property,” defined the whole idea that governments and courts and lawyers steal our conflicts, and that we should have a right and an opportunity to resolve our own conflicts.

Wife of SO

I used to work hard with the systems to place SOs in prison, until I married my second husband and he turned himself in for [...]

Judge hits out at 'this kind of crap' as teen convicted of delivery man robbery

from the article in the Irish Examiner: A judge has told a Tallaght teenager who stole a Chinese takeaway that “this kind of crap” puts delivery men off doing their jobs. “On the face of it to some this may seem a minor crime, property to the value of €18,” Judge Mary Ellen Ring told 19-year-old Daniel Wall, “but this delivery man, Mr Yang Yu, provides an excellent service, bringing food to people’s doors.” “The kind of crap you engaged in puts people like Mr Yu off doing their work, they stop delivering and lose their business,” Judge Ring said as Wall nodded in agreement.

NCHERM-CR announces summit on the application of restorative justice practices to cases of campus sexual misconduct

from the press release of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management The NCHERM-CR, the Conflict Resolution Practice Group of The National Center for Higher Education Risk Management ( www.ncherm.org ), will be hosting a two-day invitational Summit on the use of restorative justice practices in student-on-student sexual misconduct cases. This Summit is being convened to explore ways in which forms of conflict resolution, and especially restorative justice practices, may be utilized lawfully, productively and beneficially to improve on the traditional approaches used in student disciplinary proceedings.

The moral question

from the article by Kent Spencer in The Province: ....Elliott proposes a comparatively low-tech, low-cost method for dealing with the vast majority of offenders. It involves public apologies and community service in a concept known as restorative justice - meaning literally to restore the community to what it was. He has offered to bring confessed wrongdoers to a place where they can meet with people who suffered trauma at the hands of roving thugs.