"The Northern Ireland youth conferencing service was launched in the Greater Belfast area in December 2003, and was subsequently expanded to Fermanagh and Tyrone in April 2004. Introduced as part of the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002, this innovative response to young offending is based on the recommendation in the Criminal Justice Review that: "restorative justice should be integrated into the juvenile justice system and its philosophy in Northern Ireland, using a conference model […] based in statute, available for all juveniles […] subject to the full range of human rights safeguards" (Criminal Justice Review Group, 2000: 205). In contrast with more traditional models of justice, youth conferencing seeks not only to encourage young people to recognise the effects of their crime and take responsibility for their actions, but also to devolve power by actively engaging victim, offender and community in the restorative process."

Evaluation of the Sycamore Tree Programme, by: Simon Feasey,Sheffield Hallam University; Patrick Williams and Rebecca Clarke, REClaim North West

The Prison Fellowship Sycamore Tree Programme is a victim awareness programme based on restorative justice principles.  It enables offenders to understand the impact of their crime on victims, families and the community.  It also encourages offenders to take personal responsibility for their actions.  The programme is available to all prisoners regardless of faith, gender or age.

Executive Summary      Final Report

March 2005

National evaluation of Restorative Justice in Schools (Youth Justice Board)

This consisted of nine local Yots working across 26 schools (20 secondary and 6 primary). The report explores the levels of victimisation, bullying and robbery in the studied schools, the restorative justice approaches introduced, participants' (victims' and offenders') satisfaction, the short and long-term effects of the programme and whether restorative justice conferences are a useful tool in reducing school exclusions.
For the Full Report, Click here & then scroll to the bottom of the page.

Summary

(Please also see Best Practice Recommendations at the end of Full Report)

March 2005

"Supporting Pupils, Schools and Families: An Evaluation of the Hampshire Family Group Conferences in Education Project".

A report by the University of Sheffield, England, U.K., evaluates 50 family group conferences (FGCs) carried out in schools in Hampshire County.

To download the report or a summary in Microsoft Word or PDF format please click on the title above.

More information on FGC 

Summer 2004 (Published 2005)

RJ in Prisons -Mapping exercise

June 2004 (published Jan 2005)

Restorative Justice in the Juvenile Secure Estate 

Research completed by De Montfort University on the scale of restorative work being undertaken in the juvenile secure estate, and its influence on regimes and programmes. It also identifies examples of good practice.

Summary and Full Report 

2005

Conditional Cautioning - RJ Guidance to Early Implementation Areas

A Conditional Caution is a new way of dealing with certain criminal offences and involves an offender agreeing to comply with conditions to avoid being prosecuted.

Restorative Justice can be used as part of the Conditional Cautioning process, either as a condition of the offender's caution, or as the means by which the victim and offender propose the conditions that could be attached to the Conditional Caution. Two of the Conditional Cautioning early implementation areas will be using RJ (West Mercia and Thames Valley). The evaluation of all the early implementation areas will allow us to compare the effectiveness of RJ conditional cautions and non-RJ conditional cautions, in terms of victim satisfaction, offender compliance with conditions, and re-offending rates. The experience of the early implementation areas will be used to refine the guidance before wider roll out.

The RJ Operational Considerations have been developed to guide forces in the early implementation areas when using RJ and should only be used in the in the early implementation areas for Conditional Cautioning. They are part of a wider set of operational considerations for the early implementation areas (that includes information for all the organisations involved in the scheme) and should be read alongside Code of Practice for Conditional Cautioning and the Director's Guidance on Conditional Cautioning : Guidance to police officers and Crown Prosecutors issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions under Section 37A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984

Conditional Cautioning: Restorative Justice, Operational Considerations