UK 2001-2003

2003

September 2001-December 2003
(Adult) Offenders

Details of project
In 2001 the UK government funded three studies into Restorative Justice for adults with money from the crime reduction programme. The three research projects, listed below, took place over a two year period and are currently being evaluated by Joanna Shapland at Sheffield University.

Connect
The Connect Project worked with adults offenders convicted at Camberwell and Tower Bridge Magistrates Courts and the victims of their crimes. The primary restorative approach used by CONNECT was the group conference. A restorative plan is agreed by all parties, carried out by the offender and verified by the project facilitators/mediators. Where victims opted for a different restorative method e.g. face to face mediation, indirect mediation or other forms of reparative activity that method was be utilised.

Justice Research Consortium
The Justice Research Consortium (JRC) is a partnership of criminal justice and research institutions dedicated to testing the effectiveness of restorative justice in the UK. The JRC's criminal justice agencies include the Metropolitan Police Service, the Northumbria Police, the National Probation Service-Thames Valley, the Prison Service at H.M. Prison Bullingdon, Oxford Community Mediation and the Thames Valley Police. The JRC's research institutions developing the controlled tests of restorative justice are the University of Pennsylvania and the Australian National University.

Remedi
The Home Office Funded Remedi Project, in South Yorkshire, took predominately adult referrals from the probation service.

A Report on First Year
'Implementing restorative justice schemes' - Published 9th July 2004
A first year report on 'Implementing restorative justice schemes (Crime Reduction Programme)'
First year Report

April 2003
Introducing Restorative Justice To The Police Complaints System: Close Encounters Of The Rare Kind, Roderick Hill, Karen Cooper, Carolyn Hoyle and Richard Young.

The creation of an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which begins operation in 2004, will introduce a greater degree of independent investigation and oversight into the Police Complaints system in England and Wales. These changes envisage an expanded role for local (informal) resolution, with a new range of options including restorative justice conferences. With funding from the Nuffield Foundation, this paper presents the findings of a study contrasting informal resolution in a police force operating the existing statutory system in a traditional way, with a force piloting the use of restorative justice conferences (characterised by meetings between complainants and officers complained about). The research sought to examine how complainants saw the informal resolution process and to ascertain their level of interest in these restorative conferences.

In total, a sample of 54 respondents was achieved, making this the largest study of informally resolved complaints conducted to date in the United Kingdom. Data is presented on the characteristics of the incidents which generated complaints and the initial aims and expectations of those involved. The research also examines complainant experiences of the process, focusing on the lodging of the complaint, the methods by which the matter was handled and the apparent outcome achieved. In addition, the longer-term implications of the complaints process are addressed, exploring complainant ideas about the scope for reforming the system and the potential for restorative justice to meet more fully complainant needs. As with other research on the police complaints system, the findings indicate a worrying degree of cynicism and lack of confidence in the existing system of informal resolution. Where this study has gone further is in revealing a substantial degree of interest amongst complainants in the idea of a restorative justice-style meeting with the officers complained against.

To obtain a copy visit: http://www.crim.ox.ac.uk/publications/orderform.htm or contact 00 44 (0)1865 274445

2002

Aug 2002 (JRC Update)

May 2002 - RJ Schemes (Evaluation)
Proceed with Caution
The evaluation of the Thames Valley Police restorative cautioning scheme, carried out by Oxford University (funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation http://www.jrf.org.uk/) and published in May 2002, found that:

• offenders, victims and their respective supporters were generally satisfied with the fairness of the process and the outcomes achieved.
• cautioning sessions that adhered most closely to restorative justice principles tended to produce the most positive outcomes
  restorative cautioning appears to be significantly more effective than traditional cautioning in reducing the risk of reoffending.
• On the negative side, researchers found imprlemention of restorative cautions was often deficient, although by the end of the project it was much better.

The full report: Proceed with caution: An evaluation of the Thames Valley Police initiative in restorative cautioning by Carolyn Hoyle, Richard Young and Roderick Hill, is published for the Foundation by YPS (ISBN 1 84263 071 7, price £14.95).

March 2002
Young Offender Institutions and Prisons

De Montfort University's Community and Criminal Justice Studies Unit has been appointed by the Youth Justice Board to carry out research on the extent and nature of restorative justice approaches being employed in youth offender institutions and the secure estate generally. Contact Brian Williams Director CCJSU, De Monfort University, Scraptoft, Leicester, LE7 9SU. Tel 0116 257 7898

Summary and Full Report

2001

October 2001-March 2002
Victims and Offenders Prison Project
Working with victims and offenders in a prison setting
1) Between October 2001 and March 2002, Tim Newell was investigating restorative justice in prisons.
Restorative Justice in prisons in England and Wales

2) Tim Newell, six months into the project First report

September 2001
In September 2001, the Home Office released two studies on the use of restorative justice. These were An Exploratory Evaluation of Restorative Justice Schemes and An International Review of Restorative Justice. Each report provides cautions and suggestions for implementing restorative justice programmes.

An Exploratory Evaluation of Restorative Justice Schemes relays the findings of a 15-month research study of seven restorative justice schemes across England. Two of these programs dealt with adult offenders and the rest with juveniles. The two main goals were to:

• Identify the best practices of schemes to be mainstreamed
• Evaluate the cost effectiveness of the elements that are most effective at lowering recidivism and crime.

Mixed conclusions resulted from this evaluation. The seven programs displayed diversity in

• the understanding of restorative justice
• degree of focus on victims or offenders
• the process used.

Questions about satisfaction also returned mixed results. Victims varied on their statement of satisfaction with the system. The most frequent complaint was time needed to complete the process. Two-thirds of victims believed that the intervention did have a positive impact on the offender, while others expressed skepticism of the offender’s motives. On the other hand, offenders showed more satisfaction, although many of them found it very difficult to face their victim.

Effectiveness of the schemes also showed mixed results. In the West Yorkshire adult offender scheme, the findings revealed a significant impact on reoffending despite the high probability of reoffending and serious original offences. However, the West Midlands scheme for adult offenders did not show a significant difference between the control and the test groups.

Full report

An International Review of Restorative Justice (2001).
Provides an overview of the legal base, scope, implementation, and evaluation of restorative justice programmes in several European Jurisdictions:

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Poland, Spain.

There is also a section examining programs in the United States, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia. The study offers both a detailed descriptions of the implementation of restorative justice in these jurisdictions and an evaluative summary to draw out the similarities and differences between jurisdictions and lessons about best practices. Link