The Pocket Guide to Restorative Justice

Pete Wallis, Barbara Tudor, Chris Slane

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781843106296
• eBook ISBN: 9781846427480
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminal Law
• Index: Social Sciences

This pocket-sized guide can be taken conveniently to meetings, interviews and visits, to be used as a quick reference point for information about the practical application of restorative justice.

The book covers every stage of the process, from how a facilitator should prepare for taking on a new case, through initial contacts with victim and offender and facilitating meetings, to recording and evaluating a case. While acknowledging throughout the different possible ways of proceeding, the authors provide example prompts for steps such as writing to a victim for the first time, talking to the victim and offender ahead of their meeting, and initiating meetings. They use jargon-free language and provide helpful task checklists for speed and ease of reference.

This is an invaluable companion for youth offending team workers, probation officers, prison staff, police, referral order volunteers, mediators and any professional needing to know about restorative justice.

1

INTRODUCTION

This manual is designed to contain helpful hands-on guidance for restorative processes used in day-to-day practice. It has been produced in response to many enquiries for a pocket-sized guide that can easily be taken on visits or carried into meetings.

We hope it might be useful for:

Youth Offending Team (YOT) workers

probation officers

prison staff

police

referral order volunteers

school or children’s home staff

family group conference facilitators

community conferencing facilitators

mediators

antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) co-ordinators

in fact, anyone engaged in restorative practice in any field.

This is not an exhaustive reference manual, but it might enable practitioners to feel more confident.

Health Warning! Facilitating a restorative meeting is a skilled process and should not be undertaken without thorough training in line with current standards. Please use this guide to help you in your practice after you have received training (or simply as a reference book if you wish to learn more about restorative justice), not as an alternative to training.

The approach we describe here is the criminal justice model. We hope that practitioners in educational and residential settings will find this book useful. However, it should only be used alongside specialist guides for restorative practice in these settings. The restorative process we describe may be appropriate for certain more serious incidents in schools, prisons and care homes. In institutional settings, however, the restorativeness of the whole community is vital to the effectiveness of any single intervention. A range of different approaches, from informal one-to-one conversations, through circle time to the more formal restorative meetings described here, are available.

Many restorative justice schemes use the term ‘restorative conference’. We have chosen instead to talk about a ‘restorative meeting’. ‘Conference’ seems rather overbearing, but the guidance contained here is intended for any meeting that brings together a victim and offender, from an informal mediation to a large conference run along more formal lines.

The philosophy underpinning restorative justice is contained in more comprehensive documents elsewhere, some of which are identified in the Resources section at the end of the book. Marian Liebmann’s book Restorative Justice: How it Works is an excellent resource book on the many aspects of restorative justice. National guidelines on restorative practice can be found in the Principles of Restorative Justice (Restorative Justice Consortium 2004) and National Practice Guidelines (Home Office 2004) which link in with the guidance contained here. Restorative practice in a school setting is described fully in Just Schools by Belinda Hopkins (2004).

Throughout this guide the terms ‘victim’ and ‘offender’ are used for convenience only. We suggest that in practice these are potentially damaging labels that should not be used when working with clients.

The restorative process itself tends to be de-labelling, ending, one hopes, with the re-integration of all the parties.

Introducing restorative justice

Restorative justice is about repairing the harm caused by crime. When an offence is committed, there is a gap between the person causing the harm and those who have been hurt. Western-style justice focuses on punishing the offender, while the victim is often ignored (unless needed as a witness to secure a conviction).

The difference between western-style criminal justice and restorative justice can be shown by an equation. Western-style justice carefully measures the ‘seriousness’ of the offence, based on the harm caused, and inflicts an equivalent amount of harm on the offender through punishment:

original harm + punishment = harm doubled

The original harm is doubled and the offender is often left feeling that they are the victim. This most often fails to resolve anything for the real victim of the offence. In contrast, restorative justice offers the victim and offender an opportunity to close the gap between them through communication, allowing as much of the harm to be repaired as possible and relationships to be restored:

original harm + restoration = harm reduced or repaired

This way, everyone wins.

In practice, restorative justice feels very natural, and rather like good parenting. If you break something or hurt someone, the important thing is to go to the person affected, explain what happened and why, and explore with them what needs to be done to repair the damage. The offender learns about the consequences of their behaviour and has an opportunity to take responsibility and to make amends. The person hurt may learn why it happened, be reassured that it won’t happen again, and gain answers to questions that only the offender can supply. The process itself can feel uncomfortable and there may be strong emotions on both sides. The more serious the offence, the more courage is required for the different parties to come face-to-face. Indeed, many victims state that a restorative meeting is the toughest thing the offender can be asked to do, and frequently it is all that the victim feels is required to put right the harm.

It is amazing how many people are willing to contemplate meeting their offender, and how many offenders are keen to make amends. Seasoned practitioners who have many years of working in caring roles will often say that their experience of a particular restorative meeting shines out as the most meaningful and remarkable encounter in their careers. Extraordinary things can occur in the safe space created by restorative meetings, as people let down the barriers between them and seek a resolution together. Labels disappear and judgement dissolves. As each person’s story is told and the participants start to own the process, there is a genuine potential for transformation and healing.

There has been a growing wave of interest in restorative justice in the UK and around the world. Studies find that restorative practices are at the heart of traditional forms of justice in many cultures. It is found in the truth and reconciliation processes in South Africa, East Timor, Northern Ireland and Rwanda. Restorative justice was first introduced in the UK through pilot projects working with adult offenders in the community in the 1980s. The Labour government put restorative justice into legislation for the first time for young offenders with the Crime and Disorder Act (1998) and Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999). More recently, restorative principles are spreading into new areas including schools, children’s homes, workplace conflict, bullying in prisons, mental health arenas, neighbourhood conflicts and antisocial behaviour. Restorative justice can be used very effectively to divert people from the criminal justice system (for example, by resolving conflicts in school) but it can equally work in parallel with more formal sanctions, which might be a necessary response for the breaking of societal rules. This is an exciting time to become involved.

As restorative practitioners we work from an holistic standpoint which can appear to be profoundly different from other professionals. We are unable to function without an overview of the whole situation as it pertains to everyone involved. That includes other professional colleagues. Our role is to ensure that our clients understand what is offered and can make an informed and genuine choice about becoming involved. We need to be certain that all parties are fully prepared, and that we are confident in our practice. In a face-to-face meeting we create a safe container, enabling everyone to speak freely, knowing that they won’t come to harm. If handled badly there is the potential for restorative interventions to make things worse, and it is therefore in a spirit of learning together and sharing good practice that this pocket guide is offered.

Principles of restorative justice

The principles of restorative work are of critical importance to the restorative worker. They may seem idealistic, but in practice it quickly becomes apparent that working between people in conflict will always be more complex by its very nature than working with just one party or the other.

Our mantra is that we do no more harm to anyone and enable as much repair as possible in the circumstances in which we are working. As restorative practitioners we quickly become aware that an individual’s journey through the criminal justice system can generate more and more damage as their case progresses. The adversarial nature of proceedings makes it necessary to establish ‘proven evidence’ – frequently something very different to the parties’ own perception of ‘truth’. Victims often find themselves or their family members spoken of in derogatory terms and emerge from their experiences feeling abused and let down. Offenders may feel that they have been ignored and ‘short-changed’, pushed through hurdles they were not consulted about and/or did not understand. In the initial stages, they may not feel ready to engage with a process t...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Other Books
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Getting Started
• 3. Contacting the Offender
• 4. Contacting the Victim
• 5. Assessment
• 6. Agreement to Meet
• 7. Preparing for the Meeting
• 8. During the Meeting – Issues
• 9. The Restorative Meeting
• 10. Shuttle Mediation
• 11. Referral Orders and Panels
• 12. Recording and Evaluation
• Appendix
• Resources
• Index