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Wright, Martin. Mobilizing the community for crime prevention.Paper to international conference on ‘The role of community restorative justice centres in the juvenile justice system’, Ukrainian Centre for Common Ground, Kyiv, 19-20 April 2007.

This paper will discuss some of these questions, and suggest the role of restorative justice in answering them. First it will consider restorative approaches in schools and in the community, and their contribution to the reduction of harm. Then it will consider how restorative justice can be used at various stages of the process when harm, or crime, has taken place, and the community’s role in this. Finally it will return to the question of prevention. (excerpt)

Restorative Justice and Reconviction

The Ministry of Justice (formerly the Home Office) in London released the last in a series of reports on the effectiveness of restorative justice. This report discusses the reconviction rates and cost effectiveness of three restorative justice schemes funded under the Home Office Crime Reduction Programme from mid-2001 through 2004.

Attitudes of Victims and Offenders toward Restorative Justice

A June 2007 report from the Ministry of Justice in the UK reports the attitudes of victims and offenders participating in three different restorative justice schemes from 2001-2004. The evaluation shows that the majority of victims and offenders found the restorative justice process satisfactory, with communication being listed as one of the most important elements of the process.

Marshall, Tony F. Results of Research from British Experiments in Restorative Justice

Evaluations were conducted of 4 U.K. Home Office-funded mediation and reparation schemes; several other schemes around the U.K. also voluntarily used the same data forms and participated in the evaluation. The experiments demonstrate that mediation can be carried out, and that it increases offenders' sense of responsibility rather than their feelings of inadequacy and rejection. Reparation: psychological and social as well as pecuniary: is seen as a part of natural justice for victims. All of the schemes had difficulty maintaining their underlying philosophy of restorative justice in the face of a dominating criminal justice system. Recommendations for future program development are presented.

Marshall, Tony F. Restorative Justice on Trial in Britain

A Home Office study followed all cases referred to the major victim-offender mediation projects in England over two years. Despite many favorable outcomes, the main problematic for these projects was that of reconciliation to the "hostile environment" of traditional criminal justice. Existing agencies tended to "take over" the new schemes and try to adapt them to their own ends, whereas the greatest potential in such innovations lay in the new aims underlying them, related to reconciliation and a conflict resolution approach to crime policy. The greatest obstacles lay in the offender-orientation and punishment focus of the existing system.

Marshall, Tony F. Grassroots Initiatives towards Restorative Justice: The New Paradigm?

This article describes grassroots initiatives aimed at restorative justice in Great Britain. There is little the system can do to reduce crime, yet prison populations continue to rise. The benevolent cycle of informal social control is described. The danger in returning control to communities is discussed. Geographic perspectives of community are limiting. The management of society utilizing the roles of intermediate social structures in a collaborative way would be useful. Various attempts at community justice are considered, including those using conflict resolution principles. The role of mediation practices is discussed, and the design of a restorative justice system is described.

Marsh, P and Crow, G. Family Group Conferences in Child Welfare Services in England and Wales

In England and Wales, the principles of the Children Act 1989 and the research underpinning this Act provide the backdrop for family group conferences. An organized program of training has been coordinated and supported since 1992 by the Family Rights Group, with research support from the University of Sheffield. This chapter describes this backdrop to the program, outlines some of the key areas now being examined, and provides a brief description of the current state of development of family group conferences in England.

Harding, J. Reconciling Mediation with Criminal Justice

This chapter describes some of the significant influences which led to the revival of reparative justice in Britain and the development of mediation procedures involving victims and their offenders. The initiatives of the 1980s in Britain are described and their influence on the movement are discussed. Finally, the author speculates about the future of VOM in Britain.

Marshall, Tony F. Restorative Justice: An Overview

This substantial report from the Home Office in the United Kingdom provides a comprehensive overview of restorative justice principles and practices: key ideas and perspectives; historical sketch; limitations; relevant organisations; practices; research on restorative justice; and major issues in the development of restorative justice.

Baber, Mary. The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Bill [HL] [Bill 74 of 1998-99].

This research paper provides background information for the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Bill. At the time the paper was written, the Bill had completed its passage through the House of Lords and was due for debate in the House of Commons. The Bill would enable a new sentencing disposal for the youth court. Specifically, this sentencing disposal would make possible referral to a youth offender panel for young offenders convicted for the first time. The primary aim of the youth offender panel would be to prevent re-offending. The Bill would also make a number of changes to the law concerning the giving of evidence in criminal proceedings.

Dinsdale, Jennifer. Restorative Justice in HM Prison Holme House: A Research Paper

The International Centre for Prison Studies initiated the Restorative Prison Project to examine the conceptual framework for imprisonment and to work with the Prison Service in Great Britain to apply restorative principles in the prison setting. One site for this work is HM Prison Holme House in northeast England. In 2001 Jennifer Dinsdale, a graduate student unaffiliated with the Restorative Prison Project, conducted research into the feasibility of restorative schemes in Holme House. She looked particularly at prisoners’ perceptions of the impact of their crimes on their victims, the openness of prisoners to engaging in reparative activities, and prisoners’ perspectives on their relationship to the community outside the prison. This paper reports her research findings.

Jackson, Shirley E. Family Group Conferences in Youth Justice: The Issues for Implementation in England and Wales

This article examines current concerns with youth crime in England and Wales and offers an innovative approach to the prevailing options being proposed. It encourages the use of family group conferences, an internationally developing model applied both to child welfare and youth justice. This article outlines the origins and principles of the model and addresses the issues for implementation in the youth justice system in England and Wales. It concludes with a warning about hasty introductions without due consideration of the relevant issues. Please note that towards final submission of this article, a number of important developments in the debate around youth justice were presented in the Audit Commission (1996) Report Misspent Youth: Young People and Crime, and in the new government’s proposals. It is hoped that readers will appreciate the difficulties of continuing revisions to an article in the light of new material and read it with appreciation of the considerable time lag between first submission, acceptance and publication.

Crawford, Adam and Newburn, Tim. Recent Developments in Restorative Justice for Young People in England and Wales: Community Participation and Representation

This article examines some recent attempts to introduce elements of restorative justice into the youth justice system. We focus on the introduction of referral orders and youth offender panels and, in particular, consider the issues of community participation and representation. In examining the early experiences of these new ways of working we highlight a series of questions that arise out of the tension between the participatory character of restorative justice and the managerialist nature of much contemporary youth justice in England and Wales.

Wynne, Jean. Victim-offender mediation in practice

Beginning with an introduction to victim-offender mediation, Wynne continues by describing this type of mediation in practical terms within the United Kingdom context. She discusses guidelines for setting up a mediation service, issues related to training for mediators, the mediation process, reparation, mediation in relation to the criminal justice system, and issues concerning the effectiveness of mediation. Case examples demonstrate important principles and practices of victim-offender mediation.

Liebmann, Marian and Masters, Guy. Victim-offender mediation in the UK

Liebmann and Masters examine the history and current state of victim-offender mediation in the United Kingdom (UK). Development began in the early 1980s with several local initiatives (some of which grew out of victim support efforts in the 1970s). Such initiatives multiplied, though there was no legislation or central guidance for victim-offender mediation in the UK. There was government interest in victim-offender mediation in 1985-1987, but that subsided until recently. The Crime & Disorder Act of 1998 has given new impetus to the development of restorative practices in the youth justice system in particular (with an emphasis on reparation), and substantial funds have been made available (1999) for restorative initiatives. General consensus about the principles and purposes of victim-offender mediation exists, yet there are many forms of victim-offender mediation in the UK. One factor affecting variation is that parts of the UK have significant differences in their criminal justice systems (e.g., Scotland). Also, significant differences in social and political conditions affect the structure and practice of victim-offender mediation (e.g., Northern Ireland). A variety of organizations are involved in mediation. These include probation services, social services, youth justice centers, police (the Thames Valley police are noteworthy in this regard), prisons, and community mediation services. (Mediation UK, for example, is an umbrella organization for mediation.) The authors provide a summary of a number of programs and organizations involved in mediation, and they describe in general the practice of mediation (pre-conditions, principles and skills, purpose, process, follow-up).

George, Chris. Victim Support’s perspective on restorative justice

Victim Support in the United Kingdom is a voluntary organization providing services to victims of crimes, their families, and crime witnesses. From that perspective, George maintains that restorative justice can offer real benefits to victims of crime. However, he further argues that certain issues must be addressed for this to happen. In this article George discusses several issues that would involve crime victims in restorative justice in integral ways, such as understanding how crime affects victims and offering victims genuine choices in restorative processes.

Wright, Martin. Victims Meet Offenders in an English Urban Community

Much has been written about the widespread dissatisfaction with the adversarial system of criminal justice and its inability to address the needs of victims, communities and offenders has been extensively documented. Victim/offender mediation and the principles of reparative justice provide an alternative framework for responding to crime and victimization. Mediation is a process in which victims and offenders communicate with the help of an impartial third party, enabling victims to express their needs and feelings, and offenders to accept their responsibilities. In the context of victim/offender mediation, reparation is the contribution that can be made by offender to victim to help put right harm caused by the crime. If the victim does not wish to receive it personally, reparation must be made to the community. Reparation may include an apology, financial payment, practical work, return or repair of goods, an undertaking of future behavior or voluntary participation in education, treatment or training programs. Restorative justice aims to restore victims of crime as far as possible to their state before the crime, and denounces the offense by requiring the offender to take responsibility for it, and make reparation, if appropriate, to the victim or the community. It also assists offenders to regain acceptance as law-abiding members of the community.

Mediation UK. Practice standards for mediators and the management of mediation services.

This document updates and replaces a similar set of standards published by Mediation UK in 1993. Some of the key purposes of the standards include improvement of mediation services, promotion of national criteria for assessing and accrediting mediation services, and protection of clients. The document consists of an introduction, a definition of mediation, information on Mediation UK, standards for mediators and mediation services, and an appendix. The standards for mediators and mediations services cover ethical values and guidelines for operations. The appendix lists skills and knowledge relevant to mediators.

Strang, Heather and Woods, Daniel J and Sherman, Lawrence W and Woods, Daniel J and Newbury-Birch, Dorothy and Sherman, Lawrence W and Angel, Caroline M and Newbury-Birch, Dorothy and Inkpen, Nova and Sherman, Lawrence W and Woods, Daniel J and Angel, Caroline M and Bennett, Sarah and Newbury-Birch, Dorothy and Inkpen, Nova and Sherman, Lawrence W. Victim Evaluations of Face-to-Face Restorative Justice Conferences: A Quasi-Experimental Analysis.

One major goal of face-to-face restorative justice (RJ) is to help heal the psychological harm suffered by crime victims (Braithwaite, 2002). Substantial evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) has shown that this can be accomplished (Strang, 2002) and more trials are underway (Sherman & Strang, 2004). These outcomes are even more clearly, if less rigorously, demonstrated through retrospective interviews of victims about their feelings before and after RJ took place. We review the responses of victims (N = 210) who participated in trials in Canberra (Australia) and in London, Thames Valley, and Northumbria (UK). Despite substantial variations in offense types, social contexts, nation and race, before-after changes revealed by qualitative and quantitative data are all in the same beneficial direction. (authors' Abstract)

Wilcox, Aidan and Young, Richard. How Green was Thames Valley?: Policing the Image of Restorative Justice Cautions.

In 1994, Thames Valley Police (in the UK) began experimenting with restorative justice cautioning, in the Milton Keynes area. Other pilot programmes (most notably in Aylesbury) soon followed. The initiative was enthusiastically promoted by the then Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Sir Charles Pollard. One of his central claims was that re-offending rates had declined from 30% to 4% in Aylesbury as a result of restorative cautioning. This remarkable claim was instrumental in persuading key individuals, both within and outside Thames Valley Police, that greater use should be made of restorative methods within criminal justice. This paper subjects that claim to empirical scrutiny (and finds it baseless) as well as exploring what this episode reveals about the nature of relations between the police and the media. (author's abstract).