Restorative Justice: the Government’s Strategy

Source: (2003) A Consultation document on the Government’s Strategy on Restorative Justice. London: Home Office. Downloaded 21 August 2003

The British Government views restorative justice as a strategy for bringing victims and offenders into constructive contact that will bring both healing to the victim and accountability to the offender. The strategy for implementing restorative justice has two elements. The first element involves building high-quality restorative justice practices at all stages of the criminal justice system. This will be done by mandating restorative cautioning by the police; conducting a pilot test of restorative justice as a diversion from prosecution; making reparation a purpose of sentencing; developing action plans to improve the delivery of restorative justice and reparation by the Prison and Probation Services; building on existing progress in restorative justice in the Youth Justice System to assist its incorporation into the adult criminal justice system; increasing the understanding of restorative justice among criminal justice professionals and the general public; and developing a consistent approach to effective restorative justice practice, training and accreditation for restorative justice practitioners, and enabling information sharing among agencies. The second element of the strategy will be to develop an understanding of where restorative justice works best and how it can be fully integrated into the criminal justice system in the long term through further research and the development of policy on key issues related to mainstreaming restorative justice in the criminal justice system. Appended summary of the work plan for implementing the restorative justice strategy. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.