Restorative Justice with Sensitive and Complex Cases

This course is designed for practitioners who have completed foundation training and have significant experience of restorative justice practices. It enables participants to understand what makes a case sensitive and complex, the systemic nature of the causes and experiences of harm, the dynamics of relationships of power and the impact of trauma and how restorative justice can be applied to these conditions. It enables participants to become effective in engaging people and seeking their permission to support them through a restorative process. Participants will learn how prepare people to participate in restorative justice through risk assessment, a co-designing process and restorative coaching and how to facilitate a range of restorative processes designed to enable participants to address what matters to them.

This course will introduce learners to a fresh approach to restorative justice practices. There is no script or prescribed processes and the only restorative questions are those that the participants of restorative justice want to ask. It will enable practitioners to engage more people, especially victims, in face to face restorative meetings.

Learning objectives

On completion of the course participants will:

1. Understand relevant current research and theory into trauma, power imbalances and recovery;
2. Apply this research and theory to the practices of restorative justice;
3. Be capable of engaging, preparing and facilitating the active participation of victims and perpetrators of harm in safe restorative processes designed to address the harm and what matters to each party;
4. Be capable of evaluating the quality and effectiveness of their practice.

Leaming process

The learning process is designed to guide learners through a sequence which generates an understanding of
harm that can be applied to a flexible structure of restorative justice practice and implemented ethically and
skilfully so that what has been damaged, lost and violated by harm can be safely and effectively restored. It
is divided into modules and each module is divided into learning sessions.

Course programme

Module 1 Understanding complex and sensitive harm
Session 1.1. What is complex and sensitive harm
• Sexual harm
• Intimate partner violence
• Hate crime

Session 1.2. To understand the systemic context of harm:
• The impact of oppressive values and belief systems.
• Secondary victimisation in society and the criminal justice system

Session 1.3. To understand the traumatic impact of harm
• Theories of trauma
• Theories of recovery and post-traumatic growth

Module 2 Applying restorative justice to sensitive and complex cases
Session 2.1. To understand and apply evidence-based principles of practice which activate the values
supporting restorative justice practices.
• Scaffolding
• Values
• Principles of practice

Session 2.2. To understand the principle and practices of inclusion

Session 2.3. Developing capability: Inclusion and engagement
• Availability and accessibility to restorative justice
• Questions of voluntariness, consent and permission.
• Listening to what happened.
• Hearing what really matters.
• Identifying the critical questions and requests
• Offering the invitation to participate

Session 2.4. Developing capability for participation
• The importance of preparation
• Trauma informed practice
• Reviewing and assessing risks and concerns
• Co-designing a safe, respectful, and fair process
• The range of restorative processes
• Restorative coaching

Session 2.5. Understanding and facilitating restoration
• Dialogue
• Apology, forgiveness and commitments
• Memory reconfiguration
• Exemplarity
• The role of the facilitator and the process of facilitator
• Validity
• Practising the skills of the restorative meeting
• Systems for recording and evaluating quality and effectiveness