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Ireland Exploring Further Restorative Justice Implementation

The National Commission on Restorative Justice (Commission) in Ireland has released an interim report on its work to develop a policy framework for expanding the use of restorative justice throughout the country. The report suggests possible pilot projects and describes issues still to be studied.

O'Dwyer, Kiernan. Victim-Offender Mediation with juveniles in the Republic of Ireland.

The European Commission’s Grotius II Criminal Programme initiated a project to address the need for better understanding of victim-offender mediation practices with juvenile offenders and justice systems in Europe. Under this project, studies were contracted and research papers produced to examine the situation in a number of European countries. Each study covered the following matters: norms and legislation allowing for the implementation of VOM programs; theoretical frameworks of VOM centers; organizational structure of VOM centers; categories and profiles of juvenile offenses; professional characteristics and job satisfaction of mediators; and advantages and criticisms of VOM. The papers were presented and discussed at a final seminar in Bologna, Italy, September 19-20, 2003. Within the categories mentioned above, this particular paper surveys victim-offender mediation with juvenile offenders in the Republic of Ireland.

Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights. Report on Restorative Justice.

The Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) undertook the review of restorative justice as a part of its ongoing work of evaluating criminal justice policies. The report considers the work of four restorative justice pilot programmes currently operating in Ireland as well as international experiences. It also includes evidence gathered from a meeting of prominent criminal justice figures held in October 2006.

Griffin, Diarmuid. The Juvenile Conundrum - Ireland's Responses to Youth Offending

This essay examines Ireland's treatment of juvenile offenders within the legal system. Legislation in the form of the Children Act 2001 (hereafter the 'Act') provides for drastic reform of the juvenile justice system, yet the procrastination in the implementation of the Act, and the provisions of the Act itself, raise questions of Ireland's treatment of an increasingly stigmatised sector of society. (excerpt)

Houses of the Oireachta. Children Act, 2001.

This legislation contains provisions addressing family welfare conferences and diversion programmes.

Griffin, Diarmuid. Restorative Justice, Diversion and Social Control: Potential Problems

This paper will highlight some potential dangers of pursuing the use of restorative justice (RJ) for juvenile offenders in Ireland. It will look at penal reforms of the past; in particular it will look at the work of Stanley Cohen and his examination of the development of “community corrections.” Social control theorists, like Cohen, often view changes in penal structures differently to reformists and examine the underlying impact of expanding the social control apparatus beyond the prison system. In this presentation I intend to use the template used by Stanley Cohen in the 70’s to analyse the development of restorative justice in the juvenile justice system. The dangers highlighted by Cohen will then be applied to restorative practices in order to provide a framework for the critique of this approach. While it is acknowledged that the development of such programmes are essential in developing an appropriate response to juvenile offending it is also important to critically discuss these projects to highlight the problems and potential dangers emerging out of their adoption. The focus of the paper will remain primarily on restorative programmes although many of the criticisms discussed can also be levied at diversionary programmes.