Circle process helps hold youth accountable for drinking, driving, drug offenses
June 4, 2014
The process builds upon victim impact panels (VIP), a process in which victims and family of drunk driving accidents tell their stories to those caught drinking and driving. Often VIPs take place in a hall full of participants, with the victims telling their stories from a podium or stage....
Read More
SA courts release comic book to mark 20 years of success with restorative justice for young offenders
June 3, 2014
Youth Court Senior Judge Steve McEwen will launch both the comic and a brochure focused on child protection issues at the Legal Services Commission, Flinders St, tomorrow. “South Australia pioneered restorative justice in the youth jurisdiction,†Senior Judge McEwen said today....
Read More
How far would you go to stop another crime?
May 30, 2014
In the western legal system, crime victims are ignored and marginalised in the courts, so we have missed out on their vital input. As we have found out in the Sycamore Tree Project, their contribution is essential in getting through to hardened criminals. Ross Thompson is one crime survivor...
Read More
Restorative justice helps Gloucestershire’s sliding youth crime rates
May 29, 2014
The figures have been welcomed by the Howard League campaign for penal reform. The charity has backed alternative punishments to keep as many children as possible out of the criminal justice system. Chris Jackson, a spokesman for Gloucestershire Police, said: “This reduction is partly...
Read More
Victims of sexual assault deserve more justice options: report
May 28, 2014
The report by the Centre for Innovative Justice (CIJ) concludes that – despite hard-won improvements to laws and procedures implemented across Australia over the past decade – the adversarial criminal justice system is failing to deliver access to justice for many victims of...
Read More
Home raid victim meets her burglar
May 27, 2014
As part of the scheme vic- tims are able to ask the offenders questions and are given opportunities to hold them to account for what they have done. The victim of the Worthing burglary said she was “apprehensive†about meeting the man who burgled her home, but agreed it was a...
Read More
Restoring what? The practice, promise and perils of restorative justice in New Zealand
May 26, 2014
To speak of crime as injury is not mere emotionalism; it is how victims actually experience crime and other injustices. Victims usually know themselves to be victims because they feel violated, not because they realise some legal rule has been broken. It is the very pain of such violation, and...
Read More
Love creates space for restorative justice
May 22, 2014
This development has been welcome. By highlighting in human terms the human consequences for those affected by crime it invites the court, the perpetrator and the community to recognise its seriousness. It shows that no crime is an event without consequence but brings hurt and loss to...
Read More
Paula’s story
May 21, 2014
“At first, I didn’t notice that there was someone walking behind me. I finished my phone call, but I was so cold that I barely noticed what was going on around me. Suddenly, I decided that it was too cold to go on. I stopped in my tracks, and turned round to walk home again,...
Read More
Pre-sentence restorative justice
May 20, 2014
This guidance provides an overview of the processes involved in the delivery of pre-sentence RJ. However, variations and alternative processes may be developed at a local level. Processes will be influenced in part by future commissioning arrangements for the delivery of restorative justice...
Read More
Hope for healing
May 18, 2014
Although the measures in the TRC suggest a restorative approach to justice with retributive elements, lessons from, for example, Latin America teach us that the workings of a TRC do not automatically lead to reconciliation. When old wounds are reopened in the absence of a supportive framework...
Read More
Getting to the root of restorative justice on the radio
May 16, 2014
Roosevelt High School senior and RJPR student, Michelle Guerrero, defined it this way: “Restorative justice is having the ability to talk to a person about a certain problem or situation, in order to steer that person in the right direction and offering them better alternatives to...
Read More
Restorative justice: A different approach to discipline
May 15, 2014
Oakland first introduced the program in 2006 at its Cole Middle School. District leaders planned to close the school due to low test scores when it started a restorative justice pilot program. In the three years since embracing the practice, suspensions dropped by 87%, violence decreased...
Read More
Call for case studies: A victim-led criminal justice system for Europe
May 14, 2014
Then this is your chance to have your work and views published in the forthcoming book Gavrielides, T. (2014), A victim-led criminal justice system for Europe: Addressing the paradox, London: IARS Publications. We are looking for 10 case studies. Therefore, they will be accepted on a first...
Read More
Police to use restorative justice in fatal bullying case
May 13, 2014
“As mandated by a 2010 Constitutional Court ruling, law enforcers have to use restorative justice with underage offenders. Therefore, as SY is still underage, he will not be imprisoned but will instead take responsibility for his actions, repair the harm he has done to the...
Read More