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Dowden, Craig. A Meta-Analytic Examination of the Risk, Need and Responsivity Principles and their Importance Within the Rehabilitation Debate

The effectiveness of correctional treatment programs has been extensively debated. Although the earlier literature reviews examining this topic mainly supported an antirehabilitation theme, recent research using meta-analytic techniques has provided positive support for rehabilitation. The present investigation consisted of a meta-analysis conducted on the rehabilitation literature with the goal of providing a more systematic analysis and definition of the principles of risk, need and responsivity. The goal of this project was to provide a comprehensive answer to the question 'what works'. Results indicated that each of these principles play an important role in reducing general recidivism in offender treatment populations. However, only the principles of need and responsivity maintained significant contributions to treatment success when examining violent recidivism. An appropriate treatment variable based on these principles proved highly significant in predicting treatment outcome. This construct maintained its importance when various threats to validity were introduced. Results clearly indicate that rehabilitation produces mild positive effects within an offender population However, if the end goal of the program is to evoke the highest level of behavioral change possible, the principles of risk need and responsivity must be addressed. Author's abstract.

Sandau-Beckler, Pat. El Paso County. Familias Primero: Family Group Conferencing. 2003 Project Evaluation.

The Familias Primero Family Group Conferencing Project is a model court initiative of the 65th Judicial District Children’s Court in El Paso, Texas. Family group conferencing (FGC) is a process whereby child welfare services collaborate with the family, and the extended family and its support network, in the decision-making and development of plans for the care and protection of the children. An evaluation of the El Paso FGC program was conducted in the spring of 2003, with the period being evaluated covering January 2002 through March 2003. The report on the evaluation includes an in-depth analysis of the experiences of this entire FGC program. Some of the specific areas evaluated, especially with respect to outcomes, were the following: family communication; family strengths development; family resource development; goal setting and case management; compliance; and family permanency.

Mandell, Deena and Sullivan, Nancy and Meredith, Grahame and Sullivan, Nancy. Family Group Conferencing: Final Evaluation Report

This document reports the final evaluation of a three-year pilot project of family group conferencing in Etobicoke. A collaborative effort of four child welfare organizations in Etobicoke and the Toronto area, the family group conferencing pilot lasted from October 1998 to April 2001. The aim was to establish a model of family group conferencing that would function successfully by providing good and effective child welfare services in the Toronto area. This report covers the following topics: background to the pilot project; the origins of family group conferencing; specifics of the structure of the Etobicoke Family Group Conferencing Project; the evaluation’s findings with respect to outcomes, benefits, challenges, and costs of the conferences; the development of a referral system; and projection of next steps for the project.

Northwest Institute for Children and Families. Connected and Cared For: Using Family Group Conferencing for Children in Group Care. Phase I: Retrospective Study, Evaluation Findings

In the child welfare system, children in residential treatment and group care facilities are the neediest. Cases for children in group care are among the most difficult to resolve. For these children – whether they will eventually live with their family again, or they will never live with their family again – family remains of great significance. Yet, for various reasons, their family is rarely included in case planning or intervention processes. Many, therefore, reach independence at age 18 with no family support network. In this context, the Northwest Institute for Children and Families studied and evaluated the effectiveness of family group conferencing (FGC) on behalf of high needs youth in residential care settings in Washington State. This document presents the Institute’s 'Phase One Evaluation' findings. These are results based on a retrospective study of a number of conferences for youth in group care placements between 1998 and 2001.

Strehorn, Molly Ryan. Restorative Probation in Franklin County, Massachusetts: A Qualitative Evaluation

In Franklin County, MA, Restorative Probation, which began in 1996 serving residents of the county through the courts, is a partnership program under the Reinventing Justice Project. Restorative Probation is an alternative rehabilitation program in which offenders meet with a group of community volunteers, the victim, and anyone else impacted by the crime. Restorative justice is used around the world to heal the relationships damaged by crime. With the main goal of restorative work to heal relationships damaged by crime, it is extremely difficult to measure its outcomes through evaluation. Since its inception in 1996, Restorative Probation has not had a formal assessment. This qualitative evaluation of Restorative Probation concentrates on the impact that the program has on offenders. A survey was utilized which concentrated on the probationers who successfully completed the program in the past 4 years. The evaluation indicates that the program is making great strides in the process of healing the relationships damaged by crime. The key values provide a solid framework for programs such as Restorative Probation to offer holistic approaches to community justice. The implementation of the Reinventing Justice project in Franklin County shows strong community activism and willingness on the part of the civic leaders to try new methods. Recommendations were presented on ways to improve Restorative Probation. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Daly, Kathleen and Hayes, Hennessey. "Youth Justice Conferencing and Re-offending."

The literature on conferencing, restorative justice processes, and re-offending has largely been of comparative analyses of justice system interventions and re-offending, e.g., comparisons of conference and court by using experimental designs or by conducting meta-analyses. That researchers find few or no differences in comparing conference/court outcomes is disheartening to some and surprising to others, when the comparative approach itself may be part of the problem. We take an alternative approach in assessing the impact of conferencing on re-offending, utilising data from the South Australia Juvenile Justice (SAJJ) Conferencing Project and police records. Drawing from conference observations and official police data, we explore the relative importance of conference dynamics and offender characteristics in predicting future offending. We find that in addition to well-known predictors of re-offending, such as previous offending and social marginality, when youthful offenders were remorseful and when the outcome was reached by genuine consensus, young people were less likely to re-offend. These findings suggest that when attention is focused on the claimed benefits of conferencing in its own right, it is possible to identify those elements of restorative processes that are associated with reductions in crime. SAJJ observational and interview data also show that of the five groups in the conference process -- coordinators, police officers, young people (offenders), victims, and the SAJJ observers -- the victims were least able to correctly predict a young person's post-conference offending and most likely to wrongly think the young person would re-offend. Despite this, over 90% of victims recommended the government keep conferencing in the justice system.

Harris, Nathan and Burton, Jamie B. Testing the reliability of observational measures of reintegrative shaming at community accountability conferences and at court

The inter-rater reliability of reintegrative shaming concepts was tested at Community Accountability Conferences and at court proceedings in Canberra, AUS. Data were collected from observation of 45 cases: 15 violence or property-related conferences; 15 drunk-driving conferences; and a mix of 15 drunk-driving, property-related, and violence-related court cases. The results indicate that components of reintegrative shaming theory can be observed reliably using systematic observation and global rating observation methods.

Sherman, Lawrence W and Strang, Heather and Woods, Daniel and Strang, Heather. Captains of restorative justice: Experience, legitimacy and recidivism by type of offense

The authors report on the substantial variety of effects on offenders resulting from restorative justice programs based on the same model, but run by different people with various levels of experience and with different systems of caseload management. Their study examined over 500 restorative justice conferences conducted during the Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE) in Canberra, Australia, 1995-2000. This paper provides key findings from the RISE programs. The focus is on the critical role the leader of the conference plays in influencing the effects of the program on participants.

Maxwell, Gabrielle and Morris, Allison. Family Group Conferences and Re-offending

This article presents some preliminary information on the reconviction patterns of youth processed by family group conferences (FGC) in New Zealand. Among the 161 young people 35% had no convictions for either criminal or serious traffic offenses in either youth court or in an adult court. Results indicate five groups of reoffenders: persistent recidivists, intermediate recidivists, occasional recidivists, traffic recidivists, and occasional traffic recidivists. Those who became persistent recidivists were more likely to have originally committed more serious and a larger number of offenses, to have had a previous history, were more likely to be Maori, and were more likely to have been dealt severely with at the FGC.

Community & Justice Solutions. Perspectives on the Community Justice Process in Deschutes County, Oregon: Summary of Community Interviews Conducted October - November 1997

Community & Justice Solutions initiated its collaboration with Deschutes County and NIC by conducting structured interviews with 85 Deschutes County community members and policymakers. Through this interview process, CJS intended not only to document the change process in Deschutes County, but also to provide County leaders with the opportunity to reflect on current conditions, their history of progress, and the challenges ahead as they consider the next steps in establishing a community justice system. The interviewees, who represent a broad cross-section of roles and interests, were asked about the concept and practice of community justice, where it stands today in Deschutes County, their vision for their community, strengths and weaknesses in the implementation of community justice, and what needs to happen next. Though a range of knowledge and opinion was expressed, distinct and consistent patterns emerged that are discussed in the body of this report. (excerpt)

McGrath, Jim. Restorative Practices in Education: Managing Challenging Behaviour. Evaluation Report for Southend-on-Sea Restorative Practices Project, September 2003 – July 2004

The Southend Family Group Conference Project has established itself as a core service within the Borough in the short period that it has been in operation. The introduction of Restorative Practices has further strengthened its reputation as a proactive and forward thinking service. This evaluation was a study of the first forty-eight restorative conferences to be held in the piloted Southend schools. The aim of this research is to establish the Projects success in implementing the process and the effectiveness of Restorative Practices when used to challenge unacceptable behaviour. (excerpt)

Dignan, Jim. Youth Justice Pilots Evaluation: Interim report on reparative work and youth offending teams

As part of the ongoing evaluation of the pilot Youth Justice Pilots, visits were made to each of the full YOT pilots during May/June 1999 to investigate the processes relating to victim contact, mediation and reparation work being undertaken under the auspices of the Crime and Disorder Act. Within each pilot area interviews were conducted with at least one member of the YOT with responsibility for reparation work, together with a representative from any other agency contracted to deliver reparation services to the YOT1. This brief report is intended to provide a snapshot of progress made and, in particular, to identify issues that have arisen during the first six months that the pilots have been operational. It is intended to inform the guidance that will be provided to future youth offending teams to enable them to increase the effectiveness of the reforms. The report provides an overview of restorative interventions being developed under the auspices of the Crime and Disorder Act, and progress to date in implementing the Act's victim consultation and reparation provisions. The report discusses issues relating to victim consultation and assessment, mediation, reparative interventions and the role and expectations of the courts. It also provides a summary of key policy recommendations and 'good practice' proposals suggested by this evaluation. (excerpt)

Daly, Kathleen. Restorative Justice and Sexual Assault: An Archival Study of Court and Conference Cases

My paper asks this question: Are restorative justice conferences an appropriate way to respond to sexual violence? Or do court proceedings deliver greater justice for victims? There are just two jurisdictions in the world today, New Zealand and the Australian state of South Australia, which routinely use conferences in responding to youth sexual assault. In other jurisdictions, sexual offences have been excluded from the restorative justice (RJ) agenda: they are understood to be too sensitive or too serious to be handled by an RJ process. Critics of conferences for these offences assume that victims will suffer more from an informal, face-to-face encounter with an offender, than if the case goes to court. Further, it is assumed that if cases are diverted from court, it will appear that offenders are being treated too leniently and that offences not being taken seriously enough, what Donna Coker (1999: 85) terms the cheap justice problem. It's widely known that the criminal justice system is especially inept in prosecuting sexual violence. However, as Barbara Hudson (2002: 622) says, it remains an open question whether restorative justice offers better hope of redress for women and children. This paper presents the results of an archival study of the court and conference handling of youth sexual offence cases. It is the first study to provide empirical evidence on the comparative merits of court and conference for these cases. (excerpt)

Editor. Project Turnaround Expands

Bringing victims and offenders together, and reaching an agreement on how the wrong that has been done is best corrected, can achieve much more than the traditional ‘production line’ system of justice, says Justice Minister Phil Goff. Speaking at the launch of the expansion of Project Turnaround in Timaru, the Minister said that for New Zealand’s justice system to be truly effective, “we need more than simple reliance on imprisonment, because international experience shows that the best way to turn around the lives of offenders is not in prisons. “Early intervention is the most effective way of preventing crime by dealing with its causes, and more is being, and will continue to be done, in this area.� Mr Goff said that restorative justice was an innovative and effective way of reducing re-offending, as Project Turnaround had demonstrated. (excerpt)

Coates, Robert B and Umbreit, Mark S and Burns, Heather and Umbreit, Mark S. Why Victims Choose to Meet With Offenders

The data-collection period covered 10 months of program activity, from January through October 2002. Forty-one of the 146 adult victims in the referral pool were interviewed. Of these 41 victims, 18 met in conference with their offenders, and 23 of them did not. Half of the victims who met with offenders during the study period participated in the study compared with 21 percent of those who did not meet with their offenders. In addition to victim interviews, six probation officers responsible for intake and referral and nine mediators/facilitators were interviewed. In order of the frequency of reason given, the following reasons were given by victims for not participating in a conference with their offenders: not worth the time and trouble involved, the matter had already been resolved, too much time had passed since the crime, just wanted the money, and complaint that the system just wanted "to slap the wrist of the offenders." For the victims who participated in conferences, the most frequent reason given was to possibly help the offender, hear why the offender did the crime, communicate to the offender the impact of the crime, and to be sure the offender would not return to commit a repeat offense. One of the most significant findings of the study was that nearly 90 percent of the victims who met with offenders reported that the meeting had been helpful, and just over 85 percent of these victims did not wish that the justice system had offered them more options or services. On the other hand, nearly half of the victims who did not meet with their offenders wished that the justice system had offered more. Some implications of these findings are discussed. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Center, www.ncjrs.org.

Dissel, Amanda. Restorative Justice Initiative Research Report on the Victim Offender Conferencing Project: November 2002 to October 2003

The Restorative Justice Initiative raised funds for a third year of Victim Offender Conferencing in its four partner sites: Alexandra Community Law Clinic, Odi Community Law Clinic, Conquest for Life in Westbury, and the West Rand Justice Centre. The project has been supported by the Open Society Foundation during the three years. The proposal sought to ensure that the VOC project would continue for a further year, but it also sought to test VOC in relation to more serious offending. The current year was intended to focus on serious offending (such as assault with intention to inflict grievous bodily harm) and domestic violence. It was also intended to pilot mediations at custodial institutions. Because the nature of cases was meant to be different, requiring more detailed preparation, the number of cases to be handled by each site was reduced to thirty cases in the year. In fact, each site was paid for 36 mediations, or three a month (a total of 144 cases). This report reviews the cases dealt with during the 2002/03 year, compares them with cases mediated in the previous two years, and reviews whether these cases did indeed fulfill the expectations of testing VOC with more serious cases and domestic violence. (excerpt)

Wilcox, Aidan and Young, Richard and Hoyle, Carolyn and Young, Richard. An evaluation of the impact of restorative cautioning: findings from a reconviction study

As the authors of this paper point out, restorative cautioning, in contrast to traditional cautions, aims to encourage the offender to take responsibility for repairing the harm caused by his or her offense. Restorative cautioning consists of a meeting facilitated by a trained police officer. The meeting follows a structured dialogue with the offender about the offense and its implications. The offender participates actively in the dialogue, as does the victim, if present at the meeting. Using findings from a reconviction study, the authors evaluate restorative cautioning. After summarizing and discussing key findings from the study, they conclude that they cannot establish definitively whether restorative cautioning made an impact on re-sanctioning rates or on types and frequency of re-offending.

O'Mahony, David and Doak, Jonathan. Restorative Justice -- Is More Better?: The Experience of Police-Led Restorative Cautioning Pilots in Northern Ireland

Under the two programs, juveniles (under 17 years old) who committed an offense were diverted from formal prosecution through a formal caution under a restorative justice approach. Evaluation researchers conducted fieldwork from September 2000 to April 2001. All case files (n=1,861) handled by the juvenile liaison officers in the 2 areas over the duration of the project were reviewed. Attention was given to the types of cases that came to the attention of the liaison officers and how the cases were resolved, categorized as "no further police action," "advice and warning," "caution," or "prosecution." The conferences typically consisted of the officer inviting the juvenile to state in his/her own words what they had done to warrant police action. This was usually followed with a question about the youth's motivation for committing the offense. The facilitator would then inquire about the actual and potential consequences of the act for the victim (not present), the juvenile's family, and the juvenile himself/herself. The conference would result in a cautioning agreement that might include expression of remorse, agreement to pay for damage, a written apology to the victim, and agreement to perform certain duties or engage in prescribed behaviors. Evaluators conducted interviews with 29 participants, their parents, and their victims. All participants valued the philosophy underlying the programs and viewed their implementation as appropriate and effective; however, there were two major areas of concern identified by evaluators, i.e., the risk of "net-widening" (drawing offenders into police processing who would have previously received only a verbal caution or warning from police) and the lack of significant victim participation in the programs. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Holdaway, Simon and Desborough, Sonia. National Evaluation of the Youth Justice Board's Final Warning Projects

Under the Final Warning provisions, if a juvenile's first offense is within a prescribed range of severity, he/she receives a Final Warning, which is delivered by a police officer in the presence of parents or a responsible adult. Police then refer the juvenile to a Youth Offending Team (YOT) for assessment and placement in a suitable intervention program. Failure to comply with defined elements of the program is citeable in court if the juvenile reoffends. Soon after the Final Warning scheme was launched, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) established a development fund, inviting bids to establish a range of interventions for youth, including those linked to the Final Warning scheme. This report pertains to an evaluation of 30 YJB-funded development projects that sought to establish Final Warning intervention programs. The projects spanned a range of interventions based on restorative justice, educational and career advice, mentoring, and drug and alcohol treatment. Using a questionnaire, data were collected from YOTs and program staff; and 91 interviews were conducted with participants in 21 Final Warning cases sampled from 18 projects. A total of 708 juvenile offenders were included in the sample. The evaluation determined that few of the YOTs that received YJB funds were ready to develop and implement their plans. For various reasons, intervention programs and other aspects of the Final Warning were not a priority. Still, there was evidence of good practice when systematic, coordinated planning was involved. Improvement requires thorough planning for the delivery of warnings, an empirically based assessment of offenders, and the design and delivery of programs tailored to assessments. Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov.

McCold, Paul. An Experiment in Police-Based Restorative Justice: The Bethlehem (PA) Project.

In 1991, writes Paul McCold, police-based family group conferencing as a community policing technique was pioneered in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. Prior to his own study, McCold states that empirical evaluation of restorative policing has been based on a “before/after� design. That evaluation indicated a reduction in referrals to court following the introduction of conferencing in Wagga Wagga. Qualitative studies of restorative policing have suggested significant, positive changes in the attitude of the police toward their own role and work. McCold builds on previous research with a study of restorative policing in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Specifically, he examines the effects of restorative policing practice on police, victims, offenders, and the community. He also compares his results with equivalent data on formal adjudication and with other restorative approaches (e.g., victim-offender mediation).