How far can and should restorative justice distance itself from criminal justice?

Source: (2008) Workshop for conference of the European Forum for Restorative Justice. Verona, Italy, 17-19 April 2008.

To the extent that restorative justice has been implemented, it has shown very promising results: the great majority of victims are satisfied, offenders feel that the method is fair, and re-offending rates are as good or better in almost all cases. But in countries such as England and Wales restorative justice is being put into effect in a very piecemeal fashion, lacking many of the features that the full-blown philosophy would require. For example, victims are often not involved, or if they are, they are not empowered: that is, they are not given much influence on the outcome. This paper will consider to what extent this is because the delivery of restorative justice is government-controlled, or mainly done in-house by youth offending teams, probation or police. (excerpt)