Review of research on victims' experiences in restorative justice: Implications for youth justice

Despite claims that restorative justice is “victim centered,” and deliberately focused on healing harms to victims, some studies report that particular applications of restorative justice may not be fully consistent with its fundamental principles and values. Under such circumstances these programs may focus on outcomes (e.g., rehabilitation of youthful offenders) rather than process, and in doing so, may fail to identify and respond effectively to victims' needs. To take a closer look at this phenomenon, this article examines a sample of published restorative justice studies that highlight ‘negative’ experiences of victims. Given a number of studies that indicate victims typically have satisfying experiences in restorative justice practices such reports of negative experiences and practices should be viewed as ‘outliers.’ However, such outliers may provide substantively meaningful insights that inform best practice standard for restorative justice. Implications are drawn for the use of restorative justice practices for youth justice.     

Healing Victims and Offenders and Reducing Crime: A Critical Assessment of Restorative Justice Practice and Theory

The current article explores the growing restorative justice movement. It examines promising research indicating that face‐to‐face dialogue with crime victims and offenders may work to restore and heal participants, and reduce recidivism. In addition, the article assesses the current state of restorative justice theory, suggesting new avenues for future theory and research. I show how current thinking about restorative justice can benefit from a micro‐sociological reframing, focusing on the production of collective emotion and micro‐dynamics of interaction.     

The Micropolitics of Victim–Offender Mediation

Victim–offender mediation is one of the most widely used practices of restorative justice encounter in the United States. We report findings from research on a victim–offender mediation program sponsored by an American juvenile court. Our specific concern is with power relations at the micro level of the mediation session. Restorative justice has been alternately criticized for controlling its participants too much and for controlling them too little. Some critics point to the silencing of participants, especially those of low social status like youth. Others point to the failure of restorative justice participants to effectively challenge attitudes conducive to crime. We consider the extent to which lay participants were silenced and/or challenged during mediation sessions. Our data suggest that power is diffuse in restorative justice encounters with juvenile offenders and that it is creatively deployed to achieve a variety of purposes. Consistent with restorative justice theories, which consider crime causation broadly, attitudes conducive to crime were not systematically addressed. The analysis underscores the complexity of both restorative justice and its evaluation.     

“You don’t have to say straight out …”: Directed Impression Management at Victim–Offender Mediation Pre-meetings

Based on a study of two mediation centers in Sweden, this research shows how mediators encourage victim and offender impression management, regarding looks, attitudes, and speech. It shows how they supervise the emotion work of participants, preparing them for mediation encounters. The author investigates how mediators try to create a “balanced” interaction (e.g., preventing expressed prejudices or irresponsible attitudes between the parties). The mediation meeting is seen as an institutionalized interaction with a particular desired outcome. The suggested impression management can be seen as a corrective strategy, implying social control. This article aims to present new ways to understand the mediation process from a micro-sociological and dramaturgical viewpoint. Even if the encounter between offenders and victims is seen as the essence of restorative justice practices, analyses of the process are rare and needed. This process-based approach offers new insights for research in the fields of social science and restorative justice.     

Restorative justice: an alternative approach to juvenile crime

This paper examines “restorative justice,” a new approach to the problem of juvenile crime, from an economic point of view. Advocates assert that the personal, social, and economic harms inflicted by many juvenile crimes are more adequately repaired through mediated face-to-face conferences between victims and offenders than through the conventional disposition of juvenile cases. Parallels between this conception and key elements of the “economic model of crime” are reviewed, followed by an application of the concept of social capital to this process. We conclude with a brief review of early empirical evidence suggestive of the promise of this new approach.     

Christian faith and recovery from substance abuse,guilt, and shame

Although guilt and shame, on one hand, and spirituality, on the other, are known to relate to recovery from substance abuse, the connectedness of these emotions, spirituality, and recovery has hardly been touched in research. This study, drawing from rich qualitative data consisting of the interviews of 21 former substance abusers, each interviewed twice, targets this relationship and analyses how spirituality, in this case more precisely Christian faith, relates to guilt and shame during the process of recovery. Since self-conscious emotions are at least in part socioculturally constructed, Christian faith is seen as a cultural tool that is influencing the ways how to define and cope with guilt and shame in recovery. Both academic and practical conclusions are drawn from the data.     

Enhancing the Career Development of Individuals Who Have Criminal Records

Large numbers of individuals are involved in the criminal justice system. Upon release, most have difficulty finding employment and stabilizing economic resources, which contribute to recidivism. To date, the role of work in the lives of ex‐offenders has virtually been ignored in the vocational literature. The purpose of this article is to increase awareness of this group by highlighting vocational implications of having a criminal record; reviewing existing interventions demonstrated to be beneficial (e.g., teaching skills prior to release, restorative justice interventions); and providing suggestions to more readily include this group in future practice, research, and policy.     

Parenting and the association between maternal criminal justice involvement and adolescent delinquency

The high rate of adult criminal justice involvement in the United States has resulted in many unintended consequences for families of offenders. Families involved with the criminal justice system are disproportionately involved with the child welfare system, and adolescents involved in both systems (i.e., dual system involvement) exhibit higher levels of delinquency. Yet, a lack of research exists on dual system involvement and the effects on youth. The current study leveraged nationally representative and longitudinal data of families involved in the child welfare system to examine whether maternal criminal justice involvement predicted increases in youth delinquency. An ecological model tested the effects of maternal justice involvement beyond cumulative risks as well as the potential buffer of parental monitoring and non-violent discipline on system involvement. Results suggested child welfare-involved youth exhibited similar levels of delinquency over time, regardless of maternal justice involvement. Although youth with maternal justice involvement reported more parental monitoring, the level of monitoring mattered more for youth without maternal justice involvement who exhibited decreased delinquency in the presence of high parental monitoring compared to low monitoring. The differential pattern of association between parental monitoring and youth delinquency for dual-system involved families suggests they are distinct and may carry implications for treatment response aimed at delinquency reduction through parent training. These findings underscore the importance of interagency coordination around policy and interventions to identify these high risk families at risk of slipping through the cracks of multiple service involvement.     

Justice for whom?: Assessing humanist criminology as a catalyst for change in the criminal justice apparatus

Humanist perspectives on criminology incorporate the role of the state in affecting basic justice processes. Separate scholarly work by Alfred McClung Lee, Richard Quinney, and others set the stage for viable alternatives embodied in peacemaking and restorative justice. Tie-ins between critical humanist criminology critiques, basic sociology views toward society, and current developments in alternative justice models are assessed. An evaluation of how humanist criminology has transformed conceptions of community participation (as stressed in the original humanist sociology perspective) will serve as an integral analysis in assessing the impact of social justice models.     

Nurturing the Seeds of Restorative Justice

Abstract

Communities are looking for community-building responses to the issue of crime. Traditional social and political discourses have presented only two responses to crime, “get tough” or rehabilitate offenders. An alternative view has begun to emerge in community criminal justice discourse and practice. Restorative justice emphasizes the restoration of relationships and community peace that are damaged by the harm of crime, and the repair of these social injuries. This article presents the findings of a pilot study that was conducted to assess a community's openness to restorative justice principles.     

Comprehending and Rehabilitating Roman Catholic Clergy Offenders of Child Sexual Abuse

Many have studied Roman Catholic clergy who have sexually abused children, but the range of investigations remains disconnected. This article brings together various disciplinary perspectives to form a comprehensive view. A review of the literature is first undertaken to comprehend how clergy offenders have been conceptualized in psychosocial, sociocultural, and moral-religious studies. These perspectives are then used as a foundation for examining how these clergy can be rehabilitated. Three rehabilitative modalities—psychological treatment, rehabilitation through restorative justice, and ritual healing—are explored. The article concludes with a discussion of the insights gained from the literature review and how the modalities can be advanced in an interdependent and considered approach.     

Addressing elder abuse: the Waterloo restorative justice approach to elder abuse project

The Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) of Waterloo Region, in partnership with a number of other social service agencies, designed and implemented a restorative justice model applicable to older adults who have been abused by an individual in a position of trust. The project was very successful in building partnerships, as many community agencies came together to deal with the problem of elder abuse. The program also raised the profile of elder abuse in the community. However, despite intensive efforts, referrals to the restorative justice program were quite low. Because of this, the program moved to a new organizational model, the Elder Abuse Response Team (EART), which has retained the guiding philosophy of restorative justice but has broadened the mandate. The team has evolved into a conflict management system that has multiple points of entry for cases and multiple options for dealing with elder abuse. The team has developed a broad range of community partners who can facilitate referrals to the EART and also can help to provide an individualized response to each case. The transition to the EART has been successful, and the number of referrals has increased significantly.     

Exploratory notes on criminality and emotional ambivalence

In most social and behavioral science theories, depictions of ordinary criminals tend to ignore the emotional states of offenders and the possible relationship between emotionality and criminal behavior. Theorists who do consider emotions tend to presume that crime is motivated by subconscious desires to remove guilt by being punished. This paper challenges this presumption using evidence from life-history data on criminal careers. We argue that the failure to consider the emotions of offenders leads to simplistic explanations of criminal behavior. Ordinary property offenders actually experience a great deal of emotional ambivalence concerning crime. By ambivalence we mean that despite appearent social and emotional satisfactions gained from crime, most offenders experience guilt or an enduring sense of shame.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual conference of Society for Life History Research in Psychopathology at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 31–June 2, 1983. We are grateful to Donna Bishop, Pamela Richards, and three anonymous reviewers forQualitative Sociology for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.     

Procedural (in)justice,emotions, and compliance

The procedural justice model has become widely recognized as a key crime prevention and reduction strategy, spurring its adoption across police agencies throughout the United States in an effort to address mounting concerns regarding police use of force. Recent critiques, however, have called attention to the need for greater examination of potential contributing factors that are underdeveloped in investigations of the procedural justice model, including the role of emotions. This article takes stock of interdisciplinary advancements to critically examine scholarly investigations exploring associations between procedural (in)justice, emotions, and compliance behaviors within the context of police-citizen interactions. In doing so, continued gaps are identified. Lastly, this article concludes by identifying future pathways and recommendations for the scholarly advancement of our understanding of emotions and their continued relevance to the procedural justice model.     

Challenges of implementing restorative justice for intimate partner violence: An Islamic perspective

ABSTRACT

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is currently recognized as a critical public health concern and a human rights issue. Not surprisingly, Muslims – a religiously and socio-culturally diverse faith-based populace – are not an exception. To address this complex area of criminal justice and social policy, some scholars advocate implementing restorative justice (RJ) approaches. While RJ approaches have been traditionally used in Islamic cultures for conflict resolutions, to date, few studies have investigated how RJ operates in dealing with IPV in Muslim countries and communities. This article explores how RJ approaches towards IPV operate in some Muslim countries/communities, and offers insights into developing culturally and religiously appropriate ways of implementing RJ in IPV situations among Muslims. Given the prevalence of IPV among Muslims, the question is particularly important and timely. Taking exclusively limited examples of RJ approaches that have been used to mediate IPV cases in Muslim countries and communities, this paper found one significant challenge in the RJ approaches among Muslims: community acceptance of IPV. To reduce IPV in Muslim society, it is necessary to develop treatment models and techniques that meet cultural and religious needs. This paper found that since RJ is not alien to Islamic teachings, RJ approaches can be implemented effectively in dealing with IPV among Muslims by ensuring justice and equity of the abused woman. The findings of this paper will assist policymakers, practitioners, and service providers in providing religiously and culturally appropriate care when addressing IPV issues among Muslims.     

Emotional impacts of environmental decline: What can Native cosmologies teach sociology about emotions and environmental justice?

This article extends analyses of environmental influences on social action by examining the emotions experienced by Karuk Tribal members in the face of environmental decline. Using interviews, public testimonies, and survey data we make two claims, one specific, the other general. We find that, for Karuk people, the natural environment is part of the stage of social interactions and a central influence on emotional experiences, including individuals’ internalization of identity, social roles, and power structures, and their resistance to racism and ongoing colonialism. We describe a unique approach to understanding the production of inequality through disruptions to relationships among nature, emotions, and society. Grief, anger, shame, and hopelessness associated with environmental decline serve as signal functions confirming structures of power. The moral battery of fear and hope underpins environmental activism and resistance. More generally, we expand this concern to argue that neglecting the natural world as a causal force for “generic” social processes has limited not only work on Native Americans, but also work sociology of emotions and theories of race and ethnicity, and has masked the theoretical significance of environmental justice. Taking seriously the experiences of Native people and the importance of the natural environment offers an opportunity to extend sociological analyses of power and to move sociology toward a more decolonized discipline.     

The global three: A Malaysian lens on the challenges and opportunities facing restorative justice planning and implementation

From the rise of restorative justice to evidence-based approaches to reducing recidivism, the intellectual landscape of criminal justice has seen considerable change in recent decades. The result is that an increasing number of countries have tackled the task of shifting preexisting political institutions to confirm with these new understandings. This is, of course, no easy feat. A great number of challenges confront willing policymakers, a reality that often puts philosophy at loggerheads with practicality. Moreover, the political process of change is subject to the influence of cultural and institutional norms. In this paper, we look at one particular case study – that of Malaysia’s juvenile justice system – to understand the challenges faced in changing criminal justice policy. We identify three primary categories of challenges and elucidate their shape and impact through the Malaysian example. We also briefly analyze potential opportunities to mitigate and overcome these challenges. Furthermore, we also conclude with several implications for future research that we deem are important to be taken place. In sum, we argue that criminal justice reform must be undertaken with an eye toward important societal and institutional norms, each requiring thoughtful analysis of complex local cases.     

Piloting different approaches to personalised offender management in the English criminal justice system

Various approaches to personalisation are well-established in the UK social care sector and are now starting to ‘travel’ to other sectors. In this paper we report findings from an evaluation of a pilot to test elements of personalisation in the management of offenders in probation services within the English criminal justice system. Following a review of evidence from social care, three different approaches to personalised-practice were developed and tested on a small-scale in three separate sites. The evaluation finds that all three approaches were implemented reasonably successfully, but challenges were identified including that personalised approaches are more time-consuming, that staff need support to exercise professional discretion and that balancing greater choice with managing criminogenic risk requires new ways of conceptualising the relationship between case manager and service user. Overall, ‘deeper’ approaches to personalisation, such as co-production, will take time to emerge. This paper makes two important contributions to the debate on personalisation in public services. First, it addresses the question of how transferable the concept of personalisation is from the social care sector to other sectors in the UK, in this case the criminal justice system. Secondly, it outlines a methodology for developing and evaluating personalisation pilots, prior to a wider roll-out.     

Interpersonal justice: the importance of relationships for child and family social workers

There is still much to learn about what it means to be a child and family social worker. Child and family social workers have a job that often entails making difficult decisions regarding vulnerable children and families in collaboration with other professionals, under stressful conditions in an increasing cost-restrictive climate with diminishing resources. The organisational justice framework has primarily been used to ascertain employee’s perceptions of fairness and can be used to explain a variety of organisational behaviours. Here, it was used qualitatively as a framework to structure the research aims of exploring the lived experience of child and family social workers. The results suggest that the relationships’ social workers have with their peers and managers are significant components to how they manage emotions involved with practice.     

Transforming Communities: Restorative Justice as a Community Building Strategy

Restorative justice is entering the social work literature as a strategy that can transform lives harmed by violence. However, the literature has yet to explore how restorative justice can transform communities. Despite the lack of published information, communities across the globe and the United States are experiencing important benefits from restorative justice-based interventions. This article explores 4 restorative justice strategies that seek to transform communities: restorative boards, community conferencing, community restorative support, and truth and reconciliation commissions. The examination of the strategies includes case studies that are used to support a larger discussion of application, practice, outcomes, evaluation literature, and critiques.