RESTORATIVE JUSTICE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Restorative Justice And Criminal Justice System



Abstract

This is a non-governmental assessment of the evidence on restorative justice in the UK and internationally. The purpose of this review is to examine what constitutes good-quality restorative justice practice, and to reach conclusions on its effectiveness, with particular reference to reoffending. The review employs a broad definition of restorative justice (RJ), including victim-offender mediation, indirect communication through third parties, and restitution or reparation payments ordered by courts or referral panels. Much of the available and reasonably unbiased evidence of RJ effects on repeat offending comes from tests of face-to-face conferences of victims, offenders and others affected by a crime, most of them organised and led by a police officer; other involve court-ordered restitution and direct or indirect mediation. The review makes cautious exceptions to that rule on a limited basis. We report the findings on repeat offending grouped separately by property and violent crime, so that the reader may look for patterns in relation to this basic distinction in the kind of harm (physical or non-violent) that offenders do to victims. What we do not do is vote count” the studies, declaring a verdict about whether RI works” or does not work”, either in general or in relation to specific characteristics of populations or interventions. The reason for that rule is that the available tests are by no means a fair vote” from all possible tests. We do total the numbers of findings in different directions within broad domains, but this is merely for the convenience of the reader, who will want to do it anyway. We provide it only to emphasise the caution that is needed in interpreting the numbers.

Table of Content

INTRODUCTION5

LITERATURE REVIEW6

Promising evidence7

Varieties of restorative justice8

Stages of the criminal process9

Offences and offenders10

CASE ANALYSIS10

A robbery in London10

ANALYSIS13

Reducing harm to victims13

Other effects on crime14

CONCLUSION15

REFERENCES17

Restorative Justice And Criminal Justice System

Introduction

Restorative justice is a way of thinking about what is best for the many connections among crime victims, their offenders and the criminal justice process. Restorative justice advocates suggest that conventional assumptions about these connections may be wrong: that victims should be at the centre rather than excluded from the process, that victims and offenders are not natural enemies, that victims are not primarily retributive in their view of justice, that prison is not necessarily the best way to prevent repeat crime. The erroneous assumptions of conventional justice, the advocates suggest, contribute to rising public dissatisfaction with justice across the common law countries. This report considers whether restorative justice can do better, starting with more realistic and factual premises.

Offenders and victims, for example, are often assumed to be fundamentally different kinds of people. That assumption is largely mistaken, and can have critical and potentially devastating consequences for the administration of justice. It may induce more desire to seek revenge against offenders, when victims might prefer to evoke a sense of remorse for the wrong. The mistaken premise obscures the reality that most criminals have themselves been victims, some ...