Making Progress in Restorative Justice: a qualitative study.

Source: (2010) Thesis submitted for Master’s Degree in Applied Criminology [Penology and Management]. University of Cambridge.

This is an exploratory study into how restorative justice (RJ) facilitators made progress
before and during a RJ conference. It draws specifically on the experiences of Justice
Research Consortium (JRC) facilitators who participated in one of three Home Office
funded trials between 2001-4, and the only trial to employ a randomized control
design based on the RJ conference model. Qualitative data was collected via focus
group meetings and individual interviews. This study reveals how facilitators relied
on a wide range of inter-personal characteristics, skills and techniques to secure and
manage the participation of victims/offenders and their supporters in and throughout
the RJ process. In particular, facilitators had to build rapport with the parties by a
process of empathizing while remaining impartial and non-judgmental. From this
data it is suggested that RJ in practice is about personalizing a criminal event which is
most effective when it invokes an exchange of emotional responses between the
parties which can then have a profound effect on the participants, resulting in
changed perspectives and behaviours. It is therefore suggested, that the success of RJ
conference encounters is heavily reliant upon the work of the facilitators. The data
from this study have implications for their future recruitment, training and
supervision. (author’s abstract)