Ministry of Justice evaluation: implementing restorative justice schemes (Crime Reduction Programme) second phase report

This is the second report of the Home Office-funded pilot studies of three restorative justice projects: CONNECT, the Justice Research Consortium (JRC) and REMEDI.

Key findings:

• The three schemes were generally well implemented; 342 JRC cases reached the conference stage; and 50 CONNECT cases and 132 REMEDI cases reached mediation. Though most cases involved adult offenders, victims were prepared to participate. Victim participation was very high where cases involved young offenders.
• Where participants were given a choice of restorative justice event, indirect mediation was more commonly chosen than direct mediation or conferencing. However, restricting the choice to a direct meeting with the offender did not reduce participation rates.
• In conferences and direct mediations key participants spoke for relatively equal proportions of time. Though emotion was shown in conferences, they were conducted safely, with little aggression. Facilitators were rated by observers as impartial and not dominant.
• Offenders admitted a lot or quite a lot of responsibility for the offence in 60% of the 217 JRC conferences observed, with 11% admitting only a little or no responsibility. There was censuring of the offence by participants, but also support for the offender, though little was said about reintegration into the community.
• JRC conferences involved discussion about outcomes and the future, but this was less common in direct or indirect mediation. Outcome agreements focused on rehabilitation for offenders.
• There was some formal monitoring of outcome agreements by the JRC (though not by the other two schemes), with 36% of JRC agreements fully completed and 52% partially completed by the end of the funding period.

See the first year report

See the third year report

See the final report

See a summary