England and Wales

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

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.

Masters, Guy and Liebmann, Marian. 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.

Liebmann, Marian. "History and overview of mediation in the UK."

Liebmann charts the history and development of mediation in key sectors of society in the United Kingdom. This covers industrial and employment mediation, family mediation, conflict resolution and mediation in schools, victim-offender mediation, community mediation, commercial mediation, medical mediation, environmental mediation, elder mediation, and organizational and workplace mediation. She notes links between mediation practitioners in various sectors, including the rise of mediation centers. This chapter also points to new developments for alternative dispute resolution in the civil justice system, and issues of standards and accreditation.

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.

Shapland, Joanna and et al. Does restorative justice affect reconviction? The fourth report from the evaluation of three schemes.

This is the fourth report on the evaluation of three restorative justice schemes funded by the Home Office1 under its Crime Reduction Programme from mid-2001: CONNECT, the Justice Research Consortium (JRC) and REMEDI. Restorative justice was defined as ‘a process whereby parties with a stake in a specific offence collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future’ (Marshall, 1999). Unlike most restorative justice schemes in England and Wales, the three schemes were designed to focus on adult offenders, some of whom were convicted of very serious offences. Earlier reports have examined how the schemes were implemented (Shapland et al., 2004; 2006b), participants’ expectations and take-up rates (Shapland et al., 2006a; 2006b) and victims’ and offenders’ views on the process and outcomes (Shapland et al., 2007). This fourth report focuses on one of the key original aims of the Home Office funding, whether restorative justice ‘works’, in the sense of reducing the likelihood of re-offending and for whom it ‘works’ in this way. It also covers whether the schemes were value for money, measured as whether the cost of running the scheme was balanced or outweighed by the benefit of less re-offending. (excerpt)

Halsey, Karen. Evaluation of the Children in Trouble Programme.

The Children in Trouble programme – a joint project supported by the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Howard League for Penal Reform – set out to encourage, develop and showcase different approaches to reducing the use of custodial sentences. This report documents the programme’s achievements and the challenges for its four pilot projects, following an evaluation by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). The pilots took place in three local authorities. (excerpt) Restorative justice was among the pilot projects used.

Durante, Lucia and Farrington-Douglas, Joe. Towards a Popular, Preventative Youth Justice System.

This report has four main thrusts. Youth justice, at present not succeeding in reducing reoffending,should be reshaped so that it: 1)operates at more levels in society, to match levels of offending and anti-social behaviour;2)relies more on prevention and less on coercion; 3)avoids young people being drawn into the formal criminal courts system wherever possible; 4)is more trusted by the public. Thus it should be tiered, preventative,diversionary and populist. The report also argues that the remit of the youth justice system should not stop at 17. The suggested new community justice alternatives should be available to older youths (e.g.18-21)and to young persons accused of subsequent non-severe offences.(excerpt)

Ian Edwards. The Place of Shame in Responses to Anti-Social Behaviour

Government responses to 'anti-social behaviour'have included,amongst others,two trends that employ shame in pursuit of crime prevention:"naming and shaming" of those subject to anti-social behaviour orders(ASBOs) on one hand and restorative justice on the other. This article considers how the Government has made use of each, the dynamics of each shaming process and the compatibility of these approaches. It argues that they are mutually exclusive ,and that restorative justice is prefered as a potentially more constructive shaming process.

Stephen Noguera and Carolyn Hoyle. Supporting Young Offenders Through Restorative Justice:Parents As (In)Appropriate Adults

Set within the wider context of responsibilising youth justice policies, this article heeds academic calls for further research into parent/child dynamics within restorative justice processes(Prichard,2002;Bradt et al.,2007),by critically analysing and evaluating the role of parents as supporters of young offenders.The aim is not to call into question the entitlement of parents to be present during restorative processes, but to critically examine their suitability to play the role of designated supporters. Drawing upon the literature as well as empirical work conducted by the first author(Hoyle et al., 2002), it will be argued that many of the moralising and responsibilising messages directed at the offender find currency with parents in a way which makes them feel ashamed,embarrassed and if they themselves are on trial.Parents react to this discomfort by engaging in apologising,neutralising,dominating and punitive discourses.Their reactions not only cast doubt upon their ability to be composed and supportive of their children,but more importantly might adversely affect the dynamics of the process itself.Parental reactions might thereby deny the young person the opportunity to take responsibility for their actions and to contribute to the discussion on appropriate reparation,which could ultimately thwart the chance for reintegration.

Bassett, Penny and Lee,Tim. Restorative Justice and Protective Behaviours: A Perfect Match.

On the 21st May 2009 at Egrove Park,Oxford, 120 people attended the launch of the Oxfordshire Young Victims of Crime project; one of several Home Office initiatives intended to improve support for young people who have been hurt through crime.Pete Wallis, the Restorative Justice lead for Oxfordshire Youth Offending Service, gave an overview of the project, explaining that it was founded on two main philosophies - Restorative Justice and Protective Behaviours. In his address Pete commented that 'Protective Behaviours and Restorative Justice were a perfect match'. Many of the audience would have been familiar with the principles and concepts of RJ but it is likely that fewer of them had heard of Protective Behaviours (PBs). So what is PBs, how does it work and how does it complement RJ so well? (excerpt)

Goldstone, Sharon. Can Murder ever be Forgiven? A Restorative Justice Case Study.

For Christmas in 1985, Marlon* went to visit his daughter who was living with his ex-wife, her aunt and her four year old cousin, Tanya. Marlon went with the intention of giving both girls a Sindy doll as a Christmas present but the visit resulted in the murder of Tanya's mother in front of her eyes. Sharon Goldstone describes an exceptional restorative meeting in which Tanya and Marlon met for the first time in twenty-four years. (excerpt)