Evaluation Reports

The articles in this section either summarize evaluation reports or are the reports themselves.

• Conferencing |
• Circles |
• Mediation |
• Other

Fagan, Jeffery. Attention Felons: Evaluating Project Safe Neighborhoods in Chicago

This research uses a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN) initiatives on neighborhood level crime rates in Chicago. Four interventions are analyzed: (1) increased federal prosecutions for convicted felons carrying or using guns, (2) the length of sentences associated with federal prosecutions, (3) supply-side firearm policing activities, and (4) social marketing of deterrence and social norms messages through justice-style offender notification meetings. Using an individual growth curve models and propensity scores to adjust for non-random group assignment, our findings suggest that several PSN interventions are associated with greater declines of homicide in the treatment neighborhoods as compared to the control neighborhoods. The largest effect is associated with the offender notification meetings that stress individual deterrence, normative change in offender behavior, and increasing views on legitimacy and procedural justice. Possible competing hypotheses and directions for individual level analysis are also discussed. (author's abstract)

Burge, Sara E. and Urban, Lynn S. Victim/Offender Mediation in St. Louis: An Assessment.

This evaluation of St. Louis' Victim/Offender Mediation Program (VOM) determined whether juvenile participants had fewer subsequent referrals to the court. If the goal of VOM was to reduce the number of subsequent court referrals, it was apparently successful. Juveniles who participated in a mediation session with the victim of their offenses had significantly fewer subsequent referrals compared with juveniles who did not participate in the VOM. Although this finding confirms prior research (Nugent and Paddock, 1995; Wiinamaki, 1997), there are still many unanswered questions regarding why these reductions in referrals occurred, as well as whether mediation provides the best alternative for juvenile offenders. Victim participation in VOM was the key to a completed mediation. Although very few juveniles declined to participate in VOM after being informed about the program, a significant number of victims declined to participate or never responded to inquiries by court staff. The mission of St. Louis' VOM is to "bring juvenile offenders together with their victims in a face-to-face meeting for the purpose of sharing feelings, repairing harm, discussing the facts of the offense, and to develop restitution and restoration agreements" that benefit all parties. VOM's assumption is that by meeting directly with the victim of his/her crime, the juvenile offender becomes more aware of the harms caused by the offense and the importance of being accountable in repairing the harm and changing his/her offending behavior. Subsequent court referrals were determined from juvenile court records for those who completed the VOM (n=118), eligible juveniles who did not participate in VOM (n=434), and eligible juveniles who began but did not complete VOM (n=491). The precise length of time for these juveniles to be "available" to reoffend was unknown because of data limitations. (Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov).

Paiement, Robert. Peacemaking Circles Pilot Project in St. James Town and Regent Park (Toronto, Canada) Phase Two: January 30, 2005-June 30, 2006. Evaluation Report.

This report provides findings from a process evaluation of the Peacemaking Circles Pilot Project in the St. James Town and Regent Park communities from January 30, 2005 to June 30, 2006. A previous evaluation was completed on the first year of the implementation of the project. The report begins with the historical context of the initiative, an overview and description of Peacemaking Circles, the goals and objectives of the initiative, its structure and the design of the evaluation and a summary of the findings of the evaluation. The remainder of the report focuses upon findings from the evaluation related to both the implementation process and outcomes. (excerpt)

Roujanavong, Wanchai. Restorative Justice for Juveniles and Adults in Thailand.

In 2004, Thailand introduced restorative conferencing as a response to juvenile offending. This approach has subsequently been expanded for use in domestic violence cases and with adult offenders through the Department of Probation. In this article, Wanchai Roujanavong, Director General of the Department of Probation, describes the introduction of restorative justice into Thailand, its legislative support, and outcomes to date.

Real Justice.. Six Conferences: A Composite View of Conferencing in Programs for Troubled Youth.

By combining footage of actual Real Justice conferences for offenses ranging from truancy and leaving school grounds to theft and bringing a knife onto a school bus, this video provides a realistic view of conferencing. Some conferences are emotional, others are not. Some conferences produce satisfying outcomes and occasionally one falls apart. But even an “unsuccessful” conference, as the follow-up interviews show, can produce meaningful outcomes. All six conferences were videotaped, with the permission of participants, at group homes or schools operated by the Community Service Foundation in southeastern Pennsylvania. (Distributor's description)

Umbreit, Mark S and Coates, Robert B and Vos, Betty. Victim-Offender Mediation: Three Decades of Practice and Research.

The outcome variables assessed in the studies under review include participants’ satisfaction, variously reported as satisfaction with their meeting, with the program, with the agreement, with their preparation for the meeting or with the justice system handling of their case, as well as whether they would recommend participation to others in similar circumstances participants’ assessment of the fairness of the mediator, the process, and the outcome; the amounts and types of restitution agreed on the offender compliance with the restitution agreements; diversion; recidivism; and costs. (excerpt)

Alden, Chris and Parsons, Imogen and Porto, J Gomes. From Soldiers to Citizens: The Social, Economic and Political Reintegration of Unita Ex-Combatants

This study focused on the experiences of former combatants in Angola attempting to reintegrate into their communities. It asked several major questions: what contributes to or hinders reintegration? Without targeted support, how successful is the reintegration process for former combatants? How different is the reintegration experience of former combatants than the reintegration experience of internally-displaced persons? What is the relationship between identity and reintegration? And what does reintegration look like in the face of weak government support structures? Thus the study examined many aspects of the reintegration process for former combatants.

Frank, Cheryl. Missed Opportunities: The Role of Education, Health, and Social Development in Preventing Crime

This monograph assesses the policies, programmes and services provided by the Departments of Education, Health and Social Development, and explores the potential of these for impacting on social crime prevention in South Africa. This study is primarily a policy review that begins with a descriptive overview of crime prevention, and maps some of the central debates in crime prevention. This is followed by a description of intergovernmental relations and government financing of the services under review. The policies, activities and programmes of the Departments of Education, Health and Social Development are then explored individually. In this regard, an overview of each department’s key policies and priorities is provided, and this is followed by a discussion of that department’s programmes that relate to the issue of crime prevention. This discussion is followed by a chapter that deals with the issue of groups that could be specifically targeted for crime prevention, including those targeted by the departments under review, i.e. children, women, youth and older persons. The monograph concludes with a discussion and set of recommendations based on the preceding assessment. (excerpt)

Rugge, Tanya A and Scott, Terri-Lynne. Restorative Justice’s Impact on Participants’ Psychological and Physical Health.

Research on restorative justice has cited many positive benefits for participants. For example, restorative justice processes are satisfying to both victims and offenders. However, despite references made to positive impacts on participants’ well-being, few studies specifically examine the impact of restorative justice processes on participants’ psychological health and physical health using specific health indicators. This study utilized a quasi-experimental, repeated-measures design to assess changes in psychological and physical health in 92 participants (50 victims and 42 offenders) who experienced a restorative justice process. Results indicated that the majority of participants did experience positive changes from pre-program to post-program. Future research directions and limitations are discussed. (excerpt)

Papadopoulou, Panagiota. Policy Decisions in Greece: Introducing Mediation as a Court Order

The author discusses the specific provisions of Greece's policy on mediation, describing the implications both positive and negative of aspects of the policy. The author uses this discussion to analyze the restorative justice system in Greece as a whole, claiming that it is lacking and needs comprehensive policy implementation and reform.

Lavery, Timothy. Family Group Conferences Offer Promise for Juvenile Cases

This report presents the methodology and findings from an evaluation of the juvenile family group conference program operated by a probation department in rural Illinois. In the study reported, almost every participant in one family group conference was interviewed, including the offender's guardian, the victim, a community member, and the arresting juvenile police officer. The participants were uniformly satisfied with all aspects of the conference. The study also focused on whether youth who would formerly not have been processed by the juvenile system have been brought into the system through the conferences ("net widening"). Program staff pointed out that few juvenile cases in the county were dismissed or resolved informally prior to the inception of the conference program, suggesting that there has not been "net widening." Three conferences that involved the reintegrative shaming of the offender were also observed. Case study program staff reported that from May 1999 to May 2001, only 2 of 26 offenders who had participated in a conference had their cases referred back to court. In both cases, the offenders reoffended, but still subsequently completed their conference agreement. Some of the challenges faced by the conference program have been obtaining the cooperation of multiple juvenile justice system agencies and balancing the goal of meeting victim needs with having the desired impact on offenders. These results are consistent with a recent review of prior research that examined family group conferences. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Umbreit, Mark S. Minnesota Mediation Center Produces Positive Results

The evaluation, which began in 1989, was based on post-mediation interviews with a sample of 51 victims and 66 juvenile offenders. A total of 379 cases were referred to the Center in 1989. Fifty-six percent of the referrals involved misdemeanor offenses, and 444 percent were felony offenses. The most common offenses were vandalism, theft, burglary, and tampering. Of the 379 cases, 50 percent resulted in face-to-face mediation, 9 percent in indirect mediation, and 41 percent in no mediation. Restitution agreements were reached in 96 percent of the mediation cases, resulting in $23,328 in monetary restitution, 403 hours of personal service restitution for the victims, 787 hours of community service restitution, and 17 agreements with only an apology required by the victim. Eighty-one percent of the restitution agreements were completed. Both crime victims and their offender expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the mediation process. The victims appreciated being able to tell the offender how the crime had affected them and working with the offender to determine an appropriate response to the offense. A significant number of offenders indicated that the mediation outcome was fair and that it helped them to discuss the offense with the victims. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Bradshaw, William and Umbreit, Mark S. Crime Victims Meet Juvenile Offenders: Contributing Factors to Victim Satisfaction With Mediated Dialogue .

Juvenile offender mediation was studied with respect to the relative and combined influences of individual victim characteristics, victimization status, satisfaction with the media, issues in the process of mediation, fairness in the criminal justice system, and emotional reaction to the crime on victim satisfaction with mediation. The research used data from 215 victims referred by the juvenile court to victim-offender mediation program sites in Oakland, Calif., Albuquerque, Minneapolis, and Austin. Three programs were operated by private nonprofit community-based organizations working closely with the juvenile court; the Austin juvenile probation office administered the Austin program. The programs used a humanistic mediation model that had four phases: intake, preparation for the mediator, mediation, and follow-up. Data were collected from the Post-Mediation Victim Interview Schedule. Data were analyzed by means of multiple regression techniques. Eighty-five percent of the cases were referred prior to formal adjudication as a diversion effort; the other 15 percent were referred after formal adjudication. Eighty-nine percent of the cases involved property crimes; the other 11 percent involved violent crimes, mainly minor assaults. Ninety percent of the victims expressed satisfaction with mediation. Satisfaction with the mediator, the fairness of the restitution agreement, and meeting the offender explained 42 percent of the variance in satisfaction with mediation. Results highlighted the importance of the personal encounter and negotiation between victim, offender, and mediator and support restorative justice theory. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Gabor, Tom. Lessons Learned 2001

This document is a companion to the Directory of Research, which is, as it sounds, a directory of research that is underway in the Research and Statistics Division of the Department of Justice in Canada. This edition of Lessons Learned is the first; in the future it will be published at the end of each year. It will provide a synthesis of some of the lessons learned from research over the previous year with respect to ideas, themes, findings, new insights, theories, and concepts. The document is organized in the following policy-related themes: access to justice; environmental analysis; building a costing capacity; family violence; sentencing; community and restorative justice; Northern justice issues; and the dissemination of research results. Within each theme, the main sections include an introduction, a review of relevant documents, lessons learned, and future initiatives.

Church, Cheyanne and Shouldice, Julie. Evaluation of Conflict Resolution Interventions, Part II: Emerging Practice and Theory

Many evaluation approaches currently in use cannot be adapted for implementation in conflict resolution (CR) environments, where the context is constantly changing and the time frame for results can extend over years or generations. The fear exists that evaluation may expose the fact that conflict resolution might not achieve the results that have popularly been attributed to its work. Despite the challenges, valuable information can be gained through the evaluation process. A CR evaluator can take on different roles, such as operative or consultant, depending on the goal or purpose of the evaluation. There is a spectrum of engagement between the evaluator and the project. The evaluator can be external or internal in the project, or in the middle with a compromise between these extremes. Developing a code of conduct for CR evaluators is one way to address the challenge of doing no harm and examining whether the evaluation itself is ethically responsible. Political motivation can affect the credibility and value of the evaluation's findings. The issue of who owns the evaluation and who determines its distribution can affect the information that is provided through the process. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Marsh, Peter and Crow, Gill. Family Partners

In this paper, Peter Marsh and Gill Crow report on a study that provided a detailed examination of eighty family group conferences (FGC) in England and Wales. These FGCs were carried out in four social services departments in 1995 and 1996. This document covers the FGC model for decision-making in child welfare cases, the conference process, outcomes of the eighty conferences studied, and participants’ views on the use of the FGC model. Marsh and Crow also point toward next steps to be taken to expand and improve the practice of FGCs in child welfare cases and other areas of welfare work.

Skakun, Kim and Pfeifer, Jeffrey. Regina Auto Theft Strategy: Process Evaluation.

In 2001-2002 various governmental agencies began a collaboration to reduce the incidence of young offender auto theft in Regina, Saskatchewan. The objectives are to reduce such theft through the following strategies: strict supervision and control of youth who are at risk of re-offending; a combination of enforcement and rehabilitation; and early intervention and education in crime and its consequences. The Saskatchewan Department of Corrections and Public Safety commissioned the Canadian Institute of Peace, Justice and Security to conduct a process evaluation of the Regina Auto Theft Strategy. In this document, the evaluators report their results of their evaluation in the following areas: an analysis of program foundations to establish original intent, goals, and philosophy; an analysis of the current goals, philosophies, and practices; a comparison of the original program to the current program; and the development and clear articulation of key measures.

Poulson, Barton and Elton, Kathy M. Participants' Attitudes in the Utah Juvenile Victim-Offender Mediation Program.

This study examined the attitudes of participants in Utah’s Juvenile Court Victim-Offender Mediation Program (VOMP) and compared these findings with those of other published evaluations. The Utah VOMP began in 1994 and is one of hundreds of VOMPs in the United States. Data came from records compiled during 1997-2000 regarding how 147 victims and 330 offenders regarded their experiences in the VOMP. Results revealed that all participants reported high levels of satisfaction, although victims reported more satisfaction than did offenders for some outcomes. Ninety-four percent of victims and 88 percent of offenders who used the first version of the assessment questionnaire rated the overall mediation experience positively. Ninety-one percent of these victims and 92 percent of offenders believed that the mediator was fair and impartial. Ninety-three percent of these victims and 94 percent of offenders would recommend the mediator to others. The results were also encouraging for the second version of the questionnaire, although victims displayed higher levels of endorsement than offenders regarding their overall experience, the negotiated agreement, comfort with the mediator, and willingness to recommend mediation to a friend. Findings were similar to those of studies of other VOMP programs and supported the conclusion that mediation and other forms of restorative justice are effective alternatives to common court procedures. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Hayes, Hennessey. Youth Justice Conferencing and Re-Offending in Queensland

Community conferencing was introduced in Queensland with proclamation of the amended Juvenile Justice Act 1992. A community conference is a meeting where young offenders, their victims and supporters come together to discuss the offence and what should be done about it. In April 1997 the Queensland Department of Justice initiated a "pilot" conferencing project in two southeast jurisdictions (Logan and Ipswich). From February to May 1998, colleagues and I (Hayes et al. 1998) evaluated the two southeast projects. Results showed that participants (ie., offenders, victims and supporters) were largely satisfied with conferencing processes and felt they had been treated fairly and with respect. In this paper I summarise findings from the first conferencing and re-offending study undertaken in Queensland. The study is grounded on data collected from young offenders conferenced from April 1997 to May 1999 (N=200). The main findings are consistent with results from similar studies in New Zealand and South Australia and show that young persons’ prior offending histories bear heavily on post-conference behaviour. Just over half (51%) of young people conferenced came to their restorative event with prior officially detected offending, and a similar proportion (56%) went on to commit a further offence. While post-conference offending did occur, median annual post-conference offending rates were nominal (one offence per year). Furthermore, in Queensland, the effect of conference features in dissuading further offending behaviour was difficult to discern largely because conferences in the Queensland context are less variable events compared to other jurisdictions. That is, levels of participant satisfaction with conference events and outcomes were very high (mid- to high-90% range) and stable across participant groups; conference size and duration were not related to post-conference outcomes. Author's Abstract.

Liebmann, Marian. Visit to Uganda 31 July- 28 August 2002. Victim Offender Mediation Skills Training Full Report

As indicated in the title, this paper is Marian Liebmann's report on her visit to Uganda in 2002 to conduct skills training in victim offender mediation. This visit followed a trip to Uganda by Liebmann in 1999, at the behest of the Restorative Justice Initiative, in which she provided training for criminal justice professionals. Subsequent to that, Save the Children (a UK organization with work in Uganda) asked Grace Kiconco Sirrah of Restorative Justice Initiative to write a manual to be used to train people all around Uganda in victim offender mediation. The impetus for this manual and training was the Children Statute 1996 in Uganda, a significant and promising piece of legislation, but poorly understood and practiced because there was little awareness of victims' rights and needs or of restorative justice. Liebmann reports on her involvement in the testing of the use of this manual for training in Uganda. In particular, she describes in detail the pilot training project over a three-week period in various locations in Uganda.