Rebuilding community connections – mediation and restorative justice in Europe

Source: (2004) Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing/Editions du Conseil de l’Europe.

Conventional criminal justice procedures have taken too little account of victims’ needs, and the excessive use of imprisonment has done little to make society safer. A community’s response to crime should help the victim to recover, hold the offender accountable, and encourage the offender’s reintegration in to the community, once reparation has been made. Restorative Justice and mediation offer a new, participative approach to crime, based on repairing harm as far as possible, so that victims, offenders and the local community can better understand the pressures that lead to crime, its effects, and ways of dealing with it. Rebuilding community connections outlines the main features of restorative justice, including different models and research findings, and proposes guidelines for setting up programmes. It also identifies problems and ways of dealing with them. This guide provides essential information for those planning to introduce restorative justice in particular countries in central and eastern Europe. For countries that have already done so, it offers an opportunity to review practices in the light of experience and research elsewhere. (Publisher’s abstract).