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Community Restorative Justice Ireland. Standards & values of restorative justice practice

This paper presents minimal benchmarks of practice for community restorative justice. Section I identifies standards of community restorative practice for programs, participants, and communities. Section II identifies fundamental concepts and values of community restorative justice practice: the meaning of crime; obligations and liabilities; and the goals of justice.

Community Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland – An Overview

Community restorative justice programmes developed in Northern Ireland as an alternative to punitive "self-policing" by the IRA and Loyalist groups. In this article, Brian Gormally, a practitioner working in Northern Ireland, provides an overview of the development of community restorative justice initiatives, their importance to the community, and the obstacles they are encountering.

Creating Alternatives in Northern Ireland.

Haunted by a history of violence, Northern Ireland communities have increasingly explored restorative responses to crime as an alternative to punishment violence used by paramilitary groups. In 1998, Greater Shankill Alternatives (Alternatives) was created to help young offenders learn the impact of their behaviour on themselves, their victims, and their community.

Gormally, Brian. Community Restorative Justice – a new bridge between state and people?

In Northern Ireland community restorative justice projects have been an important part of the peace process.

Koval, Roman. Forming a Ukrainian model of restorative justice.

Restorative justice was introduced in Ukraine in 2004 through a pilot programme run by the Ukrainian Centre for Common Ground (UCCG) in Kiev. The pilot programme succeeded in establishing a working partnership with the judicial system, developing a mechanism for co-operation with the courts and training a cadre of specialists in victim-offender mediation (VOM). Due to the achievements made during the pilot programme, the UCCG was encouraged by representatives of the legal system and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to expand the project to other regions of Ukraine. Since the summer of 2004, VOM programmes have been developed in five regions of the country. Co-operating with state and legal institutions in each region, Ukrainian NGOs have developed a variety of mechanisms to implement restorative justice programmes. These activities have had a significant impact. (excerpt)

Lemonne, Anne and Snare, Annika. Restoration and Alternative Solution of Conflicts

This article focuses on the backgrounds of and arguments presented by both the maximalist model and the community empowerment models, within the restorative justice movement. The maximalist model, discussed using the United States’ death row as an example, includes programs designed to establish mediation between offenders and their victims in a prison setting. The community empowerment model demonstrates a shift away from empowering the criminal justice system towards empowering local communities in order to manage conflict resolution. Illustrated by discussing the Norwegian community mediation boards, this article addresses the ways that the divergent models of community empowerment and maximalism coexist within the restorative justice movement.

McEvoy, Kieran and Mika, Harry. Punishment, Policing and Praxis: Restorative Justice and Non-Violent Alternatives to ParaMilitary Punishments in Northern Ireland

During the most recent three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, the linitations of the Royal Ulster Cibstabulary's (RUC) policing of local working class communities has seen the parallel evolution of violent paramilitary systems of 'punishment attacks' and banishments. This paper explores the factors which underpin such punishment. It considers the relationship to the formal justice system and offers a critical analysis of the potential for Restorative Justice Theory and practice to provide non-violent community based alternatives to such violent punishments.

Terpstra, Jan and Bakker, Inge. Justice in the Community in The Netherlands: Evaluation and Discussion

In an attempt to find answers to the growing crime and nuisance in multi-problem urban areas, the Dutch Government introduced pilot projects in four cities in 1997 referred to as "Justice in the Community" (JiC) projects. The Ministry of Justice in 1999 stated that the goal of the JiC was the "promotion of ‘objective and subjective safety’ in urban neighborhoods." The program works by uniting criminal justice and other organizations in the fight against urban crime problems and by increasing the visibility of the Public Prosecution within the community. There are three main types of JiC's: settlement of criminal cases, prevention and extra-judicial activities, and contribution to local policy networks. Generally, the JiC scheme creates rapid interventions and settlements of criminal cases by employing the use of integrated and extra-judicial responses to crime and by employing a range of mediation programs. The JiC scheme also incorporates the victims of crimes as integral members of the criminal justice process. Despite the lofty goals of JiC, the evaluation results did not illustrate that the JiC programs resulted in higher levels of "objective and subjective safety" within the neighborhoods where they were employed. Despite the shortcomings of the JiC scheme in terms of levels of safety, the scheme has shown success in forging partnerships and legitimizing information sharing among agencies. It will be instructive to see how the JiC expands its use of the instruments of criminal justice for the sake of effectiveness without the express legal authority to do so. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org

The Politicisation of Community Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland

Community restorative justice programmes in Northern Ireland developed in an atmosphere of conflict and distrust of formal justice institutions. Recently, their informal community base has been a point of contention as these programmes have sought governmental funding. Anna Eriksson, of the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice Queen’s University of Belfast, describes this politicisation of community restorative justice in Northern Ireland.