Hong Kong

Provides a listing of articles on restorative justice developments in Hong Kong. Articles appear in the order in which they were added to the site with the most recent appearing first.

Hong Kong research demonstrates effectiveness of the restorative whole-school approach

from the paper by Dennis S.W. Wong and T. Wing Lo: To evaluate the effectiveness of a restorative whole-school approach (RWsA), a pre-post study was undertaken. The sampling frame was based on the school list provided by the education authority. A total of 1480 Secondary 1 (equivalent to aged 12) to Secondary 3 (equivalent to aged 14) students from four different Hong Kong schools participated in the survey between September 2004 and August 2006. Due to practical constraints such as the school curriculum and extra-curricular activities, schools had the autonomy to implement the programmes to different degrees, which were then evaluated by the research team.

Wong, Dennis S. W.. School Bullying and Tackling Strategies in Hong Kong

In view of the rising problem of school bullying in Hong Kong, scholars have endeavored to study the prevalence, causes, and tackling strategies of school bullying. This article highlights some typical incidences of school violence and reports research results of school bullying. It is noted unresolved school bullying problems are often a precursor of school violence and delinquency. Based on results from local studies of bullying, this article identifies risk and protective factors that contribute to the emergence and continuation of the bully-victim problem in Hong Kong. The article argues that suppressive tactics, such as reprimanding bullies, calling parents to school, and suspension, are ineffective. Other than suppressive tactics, adopting a comprehensive antibullying strategy such as assisting students to develop adequate self-competency, strong social skills, and good relationships with parents and teachers seems to be a useful antiviolence strategy. Author's abstract.

Wai-To Chan. Current Trend of Criminal Justice- Review of Victim Programmes in Hong Kong and Victim Offender Mediation & Advocacy

Chan Wai-to begins with the observation that the criminal justice process has generally focused on the details of an actual offense and the judicial disposition of the offender. As a result, victims of crime often do not receive proper attention in the criminal justice process. More specifically, the current provision of victim programs in Hong Kong is hampered by the absence of a sound philosophical basis for attention to the victim. In view of this situation, Wai-to contends that the enforcement of a Victim’s Charter and the use of offender/victim mediation and reparation would promote restorative justice in Hong Kong. To make this case, Wai-to examines existing victim programs in Hong Kong, critiques of such programs, and potential ways to advance victim rights and assistance in a restorative scheme.

Editor. New Zealanders Awarded the 2005 International Prize for Restorative Justice.

Kim Workman and Jackie Katounas were awarded the 2005 International Prize for Restorative Justice. The Prize recognizes significant contributions to advancing restorative justice around the world. It is presented every two years by the Centre for Justice and Reconciliation at Prison Fellowship International (PFI) and is made possible by a gift from Prison Fellowship Canada. The winners were announced during PFI’s International Council Meeting, held August 14-17 in Hong Kong.

Wong, Dennis S. W.. Restorative Justice for Juveniles in Hong Kong: Reflections of a Practitioner

Having studied different types of juvenile justice models and practised various kinds of therapeutic methods, I find restorative justice (RJ) an appropriate answer to my first question. I also believe that RJ is a balanced strategy, and that it can be put into practice through various conferencing and mediation techniques. I will not attempt to provide explanations about why I find RJ so powerful now, but you will get the answer after knowing about our recent works more thoroughly. (excerpt)

Wong, Dennis S. W.. Using Restorative Strategies to Tackle Bullying

Bullying affects a substantial number of children and youth in all schools. Like many countries, bullying is an issue of growing concern to parents, teachers and social workers in Hong Kong. In general, bullying is defined as repeated oppression, physical or mental, of a less powerful person by a more powerful person or group of persons. It occurs where there is an imbalance in power between people, and it is a persistent or continued unwelcome behavior (Olweus, 1993; Rigby, 1996; Smith & Sharp, 1994). It ranges from simple teasing to violent physical acts. This paper illustrates the growing concern with bullying in Hong Kong and the possibility that it may be the precursor of general juvenile delinquency or youth violence. Apart from highlighting some recent incidences and research results of bullying in the community, this paper discusses the negative spiral effect of bullying and a restorative anti-bullying strategy for tackling the problem. Author's abstract.

Lee, Stephen. Developing Restorative Justice in China

China’s changing social situation and the growth of social services has left the door open for the emergence of restorative justice. Following an annual Symposium of China Ministry in California, a memorandum of understanding between Prison Fellowship Hong Kong and Nanjing University was entered into that established the Nanjing University Crime Prevention and Control Research Centre. The Centre combined practical services with academic research to improve offender rehabilitation and to implement restorative justice practices in China. It was thought that the principles of restorative justice would fit well with the Chinese philosophy of “Willingness for Peace." Following the establishment of the Centre, a joint project with Nanjing Women Prison resulted in the provision of inmate counseling services. The program underscored the importance of appreciating the crime process and the prior life experiences of the offender. The importance of restorative justice was highlighted when it was realized that many offenders had previously been victims; a restorative approach addresses the victim’s needs, thus reducing the chances of them becoming future offenders. Restorative justice in China can hopefully play a part in making this a more harmonized country. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Wing Lo, T and Wong, Dennis and Maxwell, Gabrielle. Community Support and Diversionary Measures for Juvenile Offenders in Hong Kong: Old Legacy, New Age.

This paper begins by examining the arguments that led to the change of emphasis from residential training and detention to community-based measures in Hong Kong. Police cautioning and community support services are introduced. An evaluation of the services provided found that the majority of respondents reported high levels of satisfaction with them. It is likely that the services exerted positive influences on the respondents_ deviant behaviour, family values and sense of social responsibility, but one-fifth of them continued to commit deviant acts. Parents_ participation was not high. Young offenders rarely took responsibility for the offence they committed or understood the harm they had done to victims, and victims were not involved in deciding the intervention plan. The conclusions raise issues about the future for Hong Kong. They consider new diversionary strategies for responding to young people and debate the values that should underpin them.

Wan King Hung and Chuk Wing Hung. Restorative Justice: A Way Forward in Hong Kong.

This paper presents a microcosmic perspective of the demand for restorative justice in Hong Kong. Offenders and victims, a primary student and university professor, juvenile offenders and lifers, prison volunteers and social workers, as well as imprisoned offenders and a rehabilitated person respectively present thirteen voices. It further elaborates that pilot project such as "The Post-superintendent Cautioning Scheme plus Family Group Conferencing," implemented in Hong Kong, are effective and positive and can untie the inner "knots" of the parties, parents and the community involved. As such, victims are humanized with material, symbolic, and mental compensations as well as offenders can be re-socialized into the society with lower rate of recidivism. This process can enhance relationships among the parents, offenders and their offspring. This can largely improve the public safety in the community and save a great amount of outlays and expenses. In the end, the writers of this report put forward some practical suggestions on the development of restorative justice in Hong Kong which require support from the Hong Kong Law Reform Commission and the Security Bureau. These suggestions could be executed by Hong Kong Magistracy & Juvenile Court, Hong Kong Correctional Services Department, Hong Kong Social Welfare Department, Hong Kong Police Force and non-governmental organizations (such as Hong Kong Mediation Council, Hong Kong Mediation Center, Non-governmental Criminal Mediation Organizations and volunteers). Together, we can collaboratively achieve restorative justice.

Wing Lo, T. Resistance to the mainlandization of criminal justice practices: A barrier to the development of restorative justice in Hong Kong.

This article examines the political and legal barriers to introducing restorative justice (RJ) in Hong Kong. It argues that the processes involved in RJ may be in conflict with the rule of law, which is regarded by the citizens of Hong Kong as sacrosanct in their resistance to the “mainlandization” of criminal justice practices after China resumed sovereignty of Hong Kong. It is argued that, because it could admit such potentially harmful Chinese criminal justice concepts as “rule by the people,” “absence of the presumption of innocence,” “leniency for self-confession and severity for resistance,” and “toeing the party line,” RJ would be devoid of any restorative substance and could breach the principles of due process. (author's abstract)

Lee, Francis. Adopting a restorative approach to young offenders in Hong Kong: a public survey.

With declining faith in the retributive and rehabilitative models of the criminal justice system, the restorative justice (RJ) model has become increasingly favored. Most countries that practice RJ do so for juvenile offenders, and most of these are western countries. It is believed that the illegal acts of most juvenile offenders are committed impulsively. Hong Kong, as an international Asian city that is predominantly Chinese, may want to follow the global trend in adopting some types of RJ practice to deal with juvenile offenders. As public sanction/endorsement is one of the crucial criteria for the implementation of RJ, this article presents the findings of a telephone survey in Hong Kong to explore public support for the idea. It was found that the general public is in favor of the idea of RJ even though their knowledge of the local juvenile justice system is typically inadequate. Some preliminary recommendations are offered. (author's abstract)

Morris, Allison and Maxwell, Gabrielle and Hayes, Hennessey. Conferencing and Restorative Justice

Family group conferences in the New Zealand youth justice system have been the centre of international interest since they were introduced there in 1989, and they have since been imitated by a number of countries. Enabling legislation for juvenile offenders has been passed in New Zealand, Australia, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, and Singapore. Also in New Zealand, legislation has been passed for adult offenders. Various versions of conferencing for young offenders have been introduced in Belgium, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States. More recently, new initiatives have been taken to introduce restorative conferencing in Brazil and Argentina for both adults and young people. In this chapter, we describe restorative justice conferencing for juveniles with a particular emphasis on New Zealand and Australia and assess the extent to which it can be said to reflect restorative justice processes and to result in restorative justice outcomes using research chiefly drawn from Australasia and North America. In addition, we examine data on the extent to which conferencing can reduce re-offending. But first, we discuss the development of restorative justice conferencing. (excerpt)

Wing Lo, T and Wong, Dennis and Maxwell, Gabrielle. Diversion From Youth Courts in Five Asia Pacific Jurisdictions: Welfare or Restorative Solutions

This article examines how juvenile offenders are diverted from prosecution in juvenile courts in five Asia Pacific jurisdictions: Queensland, Australia; New Zealand; Hong Kong; Singapore; and China. In all of these jurisdictions, there has been a trend away from punitive and retributive approaches to the diversion of juvenile offenders from prosecution in a court to the community-based welfare model and the restorative model. The community-based welfare model relies primarily on counseling, community support, and educational assistance and is usually led by professionals. This model tends to categorize juvenile offenders as having problem behaviors and emotional conditions that require treatment and supervision. The restorative model emphasizes the accountability of juvenile offenders for the harms their behavior caused and uses negotiation among the youth, their victims, and the youth's family to develop measures for repairing the harm done and addressing the youth's behaviors that caused the harm. This model limits the involvement of professionals in decisionmaking about the disposition of the case. New Zealand and Queensland use the restorative model. Criticisms of this model have included the lack of due process and protections for the rights of offenders, as well as the potential for undue influence by the police. Hong Kong and Singapore have adopted a traditional rehabilitation and welfare orientation whereby police divert juveniles from the courts through police cautions and referrals to community support and guidance services operated by social workers. In China, community-based practices such as police cautions, mediation, and educational assistance are used in diverting youth from court-based processing. Community-based sanctions are particularly susceptible to the influence of personal power and persuasion, and outcomes may favor those who have close affiliations with or hold powerful positions in the government. Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov.

Wong, Dennis S. W.. Juvenile crime and responses to delinquency in Hong Kong

This article describes the juvenile crime trend and responses to juvenile delinquency in Hong Kong since the 1970s. It explores how changing conceptions of the causes of juvenile crime have influenced delinquency control policies. Although Hong Kong has a relatively low crime rate, the heavy emphasis on the use of custodial programs over community-based programs is obvious. Whereas the scope of delinquency literature is narrow and the legal professional’s opinion is rather conservative, new initiatives to further advance the juvenile justice system are difficult. Author's abstract.

Kin-man, Tai. Community Involvement in Corrections in Hong Kong

The paper focuses on corrections under the penal jurisdiction of the Correctional Services Department, as well as the community-based corrections under the Social Welfare Department. At any time, there are over 20 non-governmental organizations involved in the work of the correctional system in Hong Kong. They are dominated by religious organizations, which engage mostly in evangelistic activities. Other groups provide reintegration support, prison visits, and counseling services. The Society for the Rehabilitation of Offenders is dedicated to helping ex-prisoners in their reintegration in the community. The Prisoners' Friends' Association provides prison visits, primarily to those prisoners who do not receive visits from relatives or friends. In addition to non-governmental organizations, private individuals from the community are also involved in rehabilitative activities for offenders. These range from evening education classes to hobby classes, sports training, recreation, and character training. The media promotes public awareness of the goals of offenders' rehabilitation.

Wing Lo, T and Harris, Robert J. Community Service Orders in Hong Kong, England, and Wales: Twins or Cousins

Hong Kong was a British colony until July 1, 1997, and it developed CSO's 14 years later than England and Wales. The birth of CSO's in both jurisdictions was strongly influenced by the rehabilitative concepts outlined in the Wootton Report, which originally launched the CSO in England and Wales in 1973; however, Hong Kong has maintained its distinctiveness in emphasizing rehabilitation and reintegration. England and Wales, on the other hand, have given higher priority to the retributive goal of the CSO. The recent renaming of the CSO as a community punishment order has confirmed this priority. In Hong Kong, the 1997 takeover presented the risk that Chinese legal and penal practices might contaminate the British-based system of law and criminal justice; however, this has not happened with respect to the CSO's, as personalized social services that contain elements of restorative justice have been persistently advocated. The CSO's in both jurisdictions thus look more like cousins. If current trends in Hong Kong and England and Wales continue, CSO's will move toward restorative justice. The incorporation or the reparative elements advocated in restorative justice might confer greater perceived legitimacy on CSO's. The authors of this paper argue that one way to achieve restorative justice in CSO's is to involve victims in the choice of community service to be performed by the offender, thus promoting both the rehabilitation of offenders and the empowerment of victims to seek appropriate reparations. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Gray, Patricia. Community corrections and the experiences of young male offenders in the Hong Kong youth justice system

In this article, Gray compares and contrasts England and Hong Kong in terms of "deinstitutionalization" and "decarceration" in youth justice policies. Because of legal changes, the number of juvenile offenders sentenced to custody fell noticeably in England in the 1980s and early 1990s. In contrast, and despite the influence of English legislation and policies, large numbers of juvenile and young adult male offenders continue to be placed in residential and custodial institutions in Hong Kong. To explore this situation, Gray looks at the following subjects: deinstitutionalization, decarceration, and the collapse of the rehabilitative ideal in the West; the concept of rehabilitation in Hong Kong; prospects for a developmental approach to youth justice in Hong Kong; and possible paths to community-based rehabilitation programs within the cultural context of Hong Kong.

Wong, Dennis S. W.. The recent development of restorative social work practices in Hong Kong.

Restorative justice has grown rapidly in the last two decades with the emergence of new practice approaches in juvenile justice and school social work. This article briefly analyses the backgrounds leading to the emergence of restorative justice around the world. It highlights the basic ideas and themes of restorative justice, and discusses how it may be adopted in youth services such as school social work and juvenile justice in Hong Kong. (author's abstract)

Ngan, Raymond M. H. and Cheng, Christopher H. K. and Ma, Stephen K. and Wong, Dennis S. W.. Program effectiveness of a restorative whole-school approach for tackling school bullying in Hong Kong.

With bullying in schools high on policy makers’ agendas, researchers are looking for effective strategies to tackle its disruptive effects. The present study sets out to address this issue. First, the prevalence of bullying is examined in Hong Kong High Schools, and second, the effectiveness of a Restorative Whole-school Approach (RWsA) in reducing bullying is examined in a quasi-experimental design. The RWsA emphasizes the setting up of restorative goals, clear instructions, team building, and good relationships among students, parents, and teachers. Over the course of 2 years, and across four schools, the effectiveness of this program was observed by comparing an intervention group with a partial intervention group (which did not receive the full treatment) and a control group (which received no treatment whatsoever). The group that received the RWsA treatment exhibited a significant reduction of bullying, higher empathic attitudes, and higher self-esteem in comparison to the partial intervention and the control group. (authors' abstract)