Restorative Practice Resources Tagged With: evidence

This report sets out some of the current uses of restorative justice and restorative practices across England and Wales. In its recommendations, it identifies 9 key suggestions for what more can be done to increase performance and outcomes.

Prepared by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Restorative Justice, this report is based on written evidence received from 57 services providers, practitioners, national organisations and academics, and from ten oral evidence sessions with key stakeholders and those with lived experience of restorative justice.

'The Justice Reform Initiative is an alliance of people who share long-standing professional experience, lived experience and/or expert knowledge of the justice system, who are further supported by a movement of Australians of goodwill from across the country and across the political spectrum.

We believe jailing is failing and that there is an urgent need to reduce the number of people in Australian prisons. We believe that the over-use of prisons is fundamentally harmful to those in prison, their family and friends, and the broader community.

We believe that prisons are ineffective as a deterrent, ineffective at reducing crime, and ineffective at addressing the drivers of criminal justice system involvement. We believe that the over-use of incarceration is a waste of human potential and a misuse of taxpayer dollars.

The evidence shows that the majority of people entering prison usually arrive there because of an underpinning cycle of disadvantage and that prison both exacerbates and entrenches a broader cycle of disadvantage, which needs to be broken.

We believe the moment has come for change, with a combination of political, economic and social forces coalescing to create an opportunity to genuinely challenge and respond to our overreliance on incarceration – and offer up an alternative vision.'

'CASE STUDIES Introduction This document presents nine case studies that provide in-depth examples of the social, wellbeing and cultural outcomes achieved through restorative justice conferencing. Much of the national evidence about the effectiveness of conferencing is based on the assessment of criminogenic outcomes, such as reductions in reoffending. However, an exclusive focus on reoffending fails to capture other important benefits for victims, young people and families, such as: offenders taking responsibility for their actions; the healing benefits for victims; reductions in fear of crime; material restoration; the reintegration of marginalised young people back into their communities; and conflict resolution (Suzuki, 2017, p. 7; Larsen, 2014; Cunneen & Luke, 2007). The case studies also provide a practitioner account of the conferencing process and include reflections about key elements of effective practice. All cases have been anonymised and prepared with the consent of the young people and participants of the conference. '

'Restorative justice is an internationally recognised evidence-based response to criminal behaviour. It views a criminal offence as more than an act of breaking the law and examines: the impact on society the harm caused to the victim, family relationships and the community. The restorative justice process requires effort and participation from the child, which differs from traditional justice responses.'

'This course introduces students to the main concepts and debates in restorative justice in an evidence-informed way. It explores the multitude of ways restorative justice can and is being used to respond to a variety of societal challenges. This includes the juvenile and adult criminal justice context, as well as areas as diverse as environmental protection, sexual abuse and health. We will also examine how restorative justice is being used within institutions to respond to concerns about harassment, bullying and sexual abuse. The course will also introduce students to relevant methodological tools for assessing the impact of restorative justice based approaches.'

'Restorative justice is an internationally recognised evidence-based response to criminal behaviour. It views a criminal offence as more than an act of breaking the law and examines the impact on society; the harm caused to the victim, family relationships and the community. We are using restorative justice processes to reduce an overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the justice system by diverting children from court to restorative justice conferences.'

'Sally Varnham, professor of law at the University of Technology Sydney, said there was emerging evidence that a “restorative justice” approach to youth crime was more effective than the “short, sharp shock” approach proposed by Senator Hanson. “Schools are introducing restorative practice also in Australia and New Zealand in an attempt to keep young people in schools, as there is such strong evidence of the ‘schoolyard (instead of) jail yard track’,” Dr Varnham said.'

'TRAUMA AND THE LAW: APPLYING TRAUMA-INFORMED PRACTICE TO LEGAL AND JUDICIAL CONTEXTS ABSTRACT The applicability of `trauma-informed practice’ to the practice of law is increasingly recognised. While originating from within the field of mental health, mounting evidence supports the contention that `more effective, fair, intelligent, and just legal responses must work from a perspective which is trauma-informed’ (Randall & Haskell, 2013). By contrast, implementation of trauma informed principles to the contexts of law remains in its infancy. This paper introduces the core principles of trauma-informed practice with reference to the many areas of legal practice to which they relate. The evidence base for widespread application of trauma-informed practice within and across the legal system and judiciary is presented, and the many benefits of implementation of trauma informed principles to legal practice are discussed.'

The applicability of `trauma-informed practice’ to the practice of law is increasinglyrecognised.