Source: (2003) Te Ara Whaketika: newsletter of the court-reffered restorative justice project. July/August. 17. Ministry of Justice New Zealand. Downloaded 9 December 2003.
In this article, Alison Hill, project manager for a court-referred restorative justice pilot in Dunedin, New Zealand, describes one of the major challenges the pilot has faced. Namely, it has been difficult finding a balance between the aims and objectives of the community groups overseeing the facilitators in the project and the rules and rigors of the governmental department involved. Many good things are happening in the pilot – Hill points to significant statistics on the court-referred conferences, as well as responses from participating offenders and victims. At that same time, Hill says that efforts will be made in the next year to improve this balance and to find ways for victims to be more involved in initiating restorative justice conferences.
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