Pacific

Provides articles discussing restorative justice advancements in the Pacific. Articles appear in the order in which they were added to the site with the most recent appearing first.

Evaluation of alternative dispute resolution initiatives in the care and protection jurisdiction of the NSW Children's Court: from the report by Morgan, Boxall, Terer and Harris: The post-conference surveys completed by parents and family members, legal representatives and Community Services Caseworkers and Managers Casework were analysed to determine participant satisfaction with the conference process and outcomes. There was a high level of satisfaction among parents and family members with the conference process, particularly in terms of having an opportunity to tell their side of the story, other people listening to what they had to say and being treated fairly. A number of parents and family members who participated in a conference said that it was the first time they felt that they had been given an opportunity to speak directly to the other parties and to express their point of view.
Standing Committee on Education, Training and Young People. Inquiry into Restorative Justice Principles in Youth Settings: The Management of Bullying, Harassment, and Violence in ACT Government Schools: This document from the Standing Committee on Education, Training, and Young People (part of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory) addresses bullying, harassment, and violence in schools under its jurisdiction. It explains how they work to counter those problems within the parameters of the National Safe Schools Framework and includes supplementary information on some of the programs present in schools.
Standing Committee on Education, Training and Young People. Inquiry into Restorative Justice Principles in Youth Settings: Submission: In response to an inquiry about how restorative justice principles are applied in schools, the Deputy Premier of the Ministry of Health Services describes a particular conferencing program in Tasmania.
Standing Committee on Education, Training and Young People. Inquiry into Restorative Justice Principles in Youth Settings: Submission: Jacinta Allan, Minister for Employment and Youth Affairs, describes some of the restorative justice programs implemented for juveniles in Victoria.
Blood, Peta. Inquiry into Restorative Justice: Submission: Blood & Thorsborne (2005) and Morrison, Blood & Thorsborne (forthcoming) have significantly contributed to the implementation of restorative practices in schools and are presently challenging practitioners to think more broadly about the implications of introducing this concept to schools. It is simply not enough to take a model from the justice system and to overlay on schools or for that matter, in any setting. It is incumbent on those implementing and supporting the implementation that they understand that this is about cultural change. Working restoratively requires a shift from an authoritarian/ punitive way of dealing with inappropriate behaviour to the authoritative/relational. It also links to two other main bodies of effective school practice: the elements that lead to students feeling connected to their school (Blum et. al., 2002) and productive pedagogy or the art of teaching and learning (Lingard et al. 2003). Many schools in the ACT have commenced the implementation of restorative practices. However, sustainability and maintaining integrity of practice are high priorities, with implementation hinging on securing additional funding. Successful implementation takes three to five years and needs to be supported long term, otherwise the ACT risks schools implementing poorly, or seeing this as another tool in the toolbox. (excerpt)
Coming face to face with emotion behind office conflict: from the article by Kelly Burke in The Sydney Morning Herald: ''Then I was amazed by what I saw. Unlike mediation, restorative justice depends on the release of emotion, and most workplaces are terrified of emotion. There is an assumption that if emotion is displayed, nothing is going to be solved … But here anger and frustration were being openly expressed. There were high levels of emotion and conflict, and that of course is the bread and butter of the dramatist.'' Today, McDonald is the managing director of the multi-national company ProActive ReSolutions, using the techniques he first developed while working as an adviser on youth crime to the police commissioner John Avery in the 1980s.
Woods, Daniel J.. Unpacking the impact of Restorative Justice in the RISE experiments: Facilitators, offenders, and conference non-delivery.: Restorative Justice (RJ) programs are often evaluated in terms of their outcomes, with little attention to the process. Typically we analyze average effects across individuals who experience RJ differently. The present dissertation unpacks these different effects in three separate inquiries utilizing data from the Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE) conducted in Canberra, Australia from 1995 - 2000. First, we descriptively assess the extent RJ conference facilitators engender perceptions of procedural justice and legitimacy in offenders. We examine the number of conferences delivered (experience), sequential conferences (practice-makes-perfect) and the timing between conferences (skill maintenance). Certain conference facilitators are better than others from the outset. We recommend the identification of RJ facilitators who are good at promoting perceptions of procedural justice and legitimacy. Second, we utilize trajectory analysis and find the impact of RJ varies by offending group, with negative effects observed for Aboriginal offenders. Finally, utilizing multinomial logistic regression, we examine the characteristics associated with non-delivery of RJ. Randomized controlled trials, such as RISE, rely on treatment integrity to best assess the impact of the assigned treatment. From a policy standpoint, the most efficient use of resources would rely on successful conference delivery. We find that the time between random assignment and the first conference attempt is significantly related to successful delivery. This dissertation takes important steps in understanding the importance of unpacking the impact of RJ and helps inform who should conduct RJ conferences, what groups of individuals to include in future studies, and what impacts non-delivery of RJ conferences. (author's abstract)
Let's talk it over: from Julia Proctor's article in The Age: Course road test: Bachelor of arts (advocacy and mediation) at Victoria University Sounds a bit different . . . Funny you should say that. This three-year degree, at VU's Footscray Park campus in Melbourne's west, is unusual, says course co-ordinator Deborah Tyler, who adds that there is nothing else quite like it in Australia. The course brings together elements of social policy, law and conflict-resolution training, preparing students for positions involving advocacy or mediation on behalf of disadvantaged groups or individuals involved in conflict.
Radical change: by Sandi Hawnt, a Sycamore Tree Project® facilitator writing in Inside Out, the newsletter of Prison Fellowship New Zealand: When I shook his hand it was cold and sweaty. He was clearly nervous to meet me - much more than I was to meet him. I was impressed that he had waited for me. The others had all gone out for their allocated 'yard time'. Just one hour a day in Maxi - quite a lot to give up on the off chance that he might be included in the programme. Interviewing him was difficult - he was so desperate to be on the programme that he was almost paralysed with nerves. Every now and then he forgot what we were talking about and I became concerned that he might be unstable. As a new facilitator I did not want to have a safety risk on my hands, so I said no to him. However, this decision didn't sit right with me. I felt uneasy, sad... wrong.
O'Driscoll, Stephen J.. Youth Justice in New Zealand: A Restorative Justice Approach to Reduce Youth Offending.: In New Zealand, the primary legislation that governs youth justice in the district court is the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 (CYPF Act). It establishes the procedures that govern state intervention in the lives of children, youth, and their families. This legislation established the family court, which deals with the care and protection of children and youth, and the Youth Court. which addresses youth offending. The CYPF Act provides for an innovative system of youth justice that consists of a hybrid justice/welfare system in which youth, their families, victims, the community, and the state are involved in taking responsibility for offending and its consequences. Under such a system, the rights and needs of indigenous people are taken into account; families are central in all decisionmaking that involves their children; youth have a say in how their offending is to be addressed; victims have a role in negotiating penalties; and group consensus is the model for decisionmaking. These policies are encompassed in police and court procedures and practice as well as through the introduction of the Family Group Conference (FGC). The FGC is a decisionmaking forum that enables offenders, victims, families, community, and justice professionals to recommend an appropriate penalty to the court. In most cases, youth court judges, who are not present at FGCs, accept the FGC's recommendations. FGCs reflect the principles of restorative justice, although this model is not mentioned in the CYPF Act. The restorative justice model emphasizes diversion from formal criminal justice processing and the determination of offender accountability based on informal consensus of all the involved parties regarding how harms to the victim and community can be remedied or mitigated by the offender. (Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov).
Aboriginal Justice Centre. Circle of support and accountability. Towards indigenous justice: Prevention, diversion, and rehabilitation.: The purpose of this report is to stimulate a shift in thinking within Government and the broader community about crime prevention and diversion. In particular, it is to stimulate a re-conceptualisation of crime prevention as social support, with a particular focus on early intervention. For too long, prevention has been considered ‘too “soft” for a problem as “hard” as crime’. This is despite research which clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of social support in reducing crime. Many community organisations are currently engaged in providing social support services which have a crime prevention function. Most of them do not define their work in this way, nor measure the success of their programs in terms of crime prevention, or receive funding from crime prevention grants funding. We hope through this report, and related advocacy and community development work, to encourage Government and community organisations to see social support services in this way. (excerpt) Includes restorative justice project.
Marchetti, Elena. Indigenous Sentencing Courts.: This brief focuses on Indigenous sentencing courts, which operate in all Australian states and territories except Tasmania. These courts have been established according to protocols and practices, and can be distinguished from more informal practices that occur in remote areas where judicial officers travel on circuit. The first court was established in Port Adelaide on 1 June 1999. Indigenous sentencing courts do not practise or adopt Indigenous customary laws. Rather, they use Australian criminal laws and procedures to sentence Indigenous offenders who have either pleaded guilty or been found guilty, but they allow Indigenous Elders and Respected Persons to participate in the process, thereby creating a more culturally appropriate forum for sentencing Indigenous offenders (Auty 2004). (excerpt)
Rena captain to residents: 'Sorry': from the article by Kiri Gillespie in the Bay of Plenty Times: Rena's captain and navigational officer have visited Motiti Island to apologise to residents for grounding the cargo ship on Astrolabe Reef. When Rena grounded on October 5 last year, Motiti Island was transformed from a pristine green paradise to an oil-soaked mess. Residents were shocked, saddened and angry.
Proietti-Scifoni, Gitana and Daly, Kathleen. Defendants in the Circle: Nowra Circle Court, the presence and impact of Elders, and re-Offending.: The first Indigenous sentencing court was established in 1999 in South Australia, and as of mid-year 2008, about 40 adult courts are operating around Australia. A growing literature has mapped jurisdictional variation, analysed the courts’ processes and outcomes, and attempted to estimate differences in re-offending compared to conventional courts. This Report presents the first qualitative study of how Indigenous offenders view the court process and the role of Indigenous Elders, with reference to the Nowra Circle Court in New South Wales, established in 2002. (excerpt)
Winning the invisible conflict: Is Sri Lanka headed for sustainable peace?: from Pushpi Weerakoon's article in groundviews.com: ....So what exactly is restorative justice? According to Dr Howard Zehr, my Professor of Restorative Justice at the Center for Justice & Peacebuilding at the Eastern Mennonite University, restorative justice ‘involves those who have a stake in a specific offence collectively identifying and addressing harms, needs and obligations, in order to heal and put things right’. It requires recognition of the people who have been hurt, and what they need (in order to alleviate that hurt). Similarly, it recognizes who has an obligation for causing that hurt, and what process can be put in place to make things right. It brings two parties together in the understanding that unless and until the truth has been told, however unpalatable it might be, in the open and forgiveness sought, there can never be any reconciliation. This is true whether it be two individuals, two factions, two communities, two ethnicities/cultures or two countries.
New Zealand study: Reoffending Analysis for Restorative Justice Cases: 2008 and 2009: from the Ministry of Justice study and summary: The aim of this study was to determine whether restorative justice conferences led to reduced reoffending. It is based on data for offenders completing conferences in 2008 and 2009 compared with a similar group of offenders who did not receive restorative justice. The principal finding of the report is that restorative justice had a statistically significant impact on reducing the proportion of people reoffending, and for those who did reoffend, there is an indication of a reduction in the frequency of reoffending and a lower rate of imprisonment.
Submission of Victims' Rights: A response prepared by the Restorative Justice Centre at AUT University in New Zealand to the Ministry of Justice's discussion document, "A Focus on Victims of Crime: A Review of Victims' Rights."
O'Connell, Terry. Restorative justice for police: Foundations for change: O’Connell argues that current criminal justice systems do not work and that they must fundamentally change, with restorative justice providing the best hope.
Rosenthal, Michael. The Palau Restorative Justice Project: This paper describes the history and implementation of conferencing in the Palau justice system. It provides a brief discussion of indigenous justice practices and how restorative justice is similar to this model.
Thorburn, Stan. Prison: Is There Any Alternative. A New Zealand Snapshot.: Judge S. A. Thorburn points to the rising numbers of offenders being sentenced to imprisonment in New Zealand in recent decades.

« Previous 20 items Next 20 items » 1 2 3 4 5 … 20

Document Actions

Send this