UK: RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Some 'Meet your victim' pioneer schemes scrapped

SOME pioneering justice projects aimed at cutting crime by making offenders confront their victims have had to be scrapped on safety grounds because of friction between the parties, the Home Office has revealed.

Restorative justice projects were introduced by the Government in 2003 as an alternative to conventional court proceedings and involve offenders meeting their victims to apologise and explain the reasons for their behaviour. Home Office officials have monitored the success of the work in four areas, South Yorkshire, London, Northumbria and the Thames Valley and found that some had to be abandoned because of threats made either by the victim or offender. Schemes function differently in different areas and researchers found that in one project 11 per cent of offenders, who were meant to meet victims to apologise, ended up admitting little or no responsibility for their crime.

Overall, 60 per cent admitted "a lot or quite a lot" of responsibility for what they had done, however. The research paper published by the Home Office said: "There were expressions of anger about the offence and its impact, but shouting or heated argument rarely occurred. "Only two conferences were abandoned on safety grounds. Threats were extremely rare - three conferences out of the 217 observed - and there were no assaults between participants."

Restorative justice was introduced when David Blunkett was Home Secretary, partly as a result of the success of some pilot schemes which had been operating since the mid-1990s. One is a charity called Remedi which started in Sheffield but spread to cover the whole of South Yorkshire because its results were so positive. That is credited with having a strong take-up rate from victims willing to become involved in mediation. On average, half of those asked took part but when the scheme started operating in Doncaster the figure in that town climbed to 80 per cent. Results in South Yorkshire have been mixed, however.

Other restorative justice schemes are operated by the Youth Offending Team (YOT), a body made up of various organisations involved in the justice system. They have been dogged by a reluctance from victims to take part.

A YOT spokeswoman in South Yorkshire said: "We have tried really hard to get victims involved but often they just don't want to. "Crimes such as assaults and burglaries can be particularly traumatic and we have found that in many cases people just want to move on from that. "However, we have got systems in place for victims who have come forward and they feel they have benefited from the experience. "It is more the case that people have not wanted to do it rather than being disappointed with the results when they have. "There were no reports of schemes having to be closed down in this area." The Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for deciding which cases should be highlighted as candidates for restorative justice.

Paul Whitehouse
24 February 2006

http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1365463

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