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The International Journal of Restorative Justice

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Issue 2, 2020 Expand all abstracts

Gerry Johnstone
Gerry Johnstone is Professor of Law, University of Hull, Hull, UK. Contact author: J.G.Johnstone@hull.ac.uk.
Annual lecture

Access_open The indecent demands of accountability: trauma, marginalisation, and moral agency in youth restorative conferencing

Keywords Restorative justice, youth offenders, trauma, marginalisation, offender accountability
Authors William R. Wood
AbstractAuthor's information

    In this article I explore the concept of accountability for young people in youth restorative conferencing. Definitions of accountability in research and programme literature demonstrate significant variation between expectations of young people to admit harms, make amends, address the causes of their offending, and desist from future offending. Such variation is problematic in terms of aligning conferencing goals with accountability expectations. I first draw from research that suggests appeals to normative frameworks such as accountability may not be useful for some young people with significant histories of victimisation, abuse, neglect, and trauma. I then examine problems in accountability for young people that are highly marginalised or ‘redundant’ in terms of systemic exclusion from economic and social forms of capital. These two issues – trauma on the micro level and social marginalisation on the macro level – suggest problems of getting to accountability for some young people. I also argue trauma and social marginalisation present specific problems for thinking about young offenders as ‘moral subjects’ and conferencing as an effective mechanism of moralising social control. I conclude by suggesting a clear distinction between accountability and responsibility is necessary to disentangle the conflation of misdeeds from the acute social, psychological, and developmental needs of some young offenders.


William R. Wood
William R. Wood is a Senior Lecturer, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. The manuscript is a revision of the author’s presentation of the Annual Lecture for the International Journal of Restorative Justice, Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference (ANZSOC), Perth, Australia, 14 December 2019. Contact author: w.wood@griffith.edu.au.
Article

From victimisation to restorative justice: developing the offer of restorative justice

Keywords Restorative policing, restorative justice, offer to victims, policing, action research
Authors Joanna Shapland, Daniel Burn, Adam Crawford e.a.
AbstractAuthor's information

    Restorative justice services have expanded in England and Wales since the Victim’s Code 2015. Yet evidence from the Crime Survey for England and Wales shows that in 2016-2017 only 4.1 per cent of victims recall being offered such a service. This article presents the evidence from an action research project set in three police forces in England and Wales, which sought to develop the delivery of restorative justice interventions with victims of adult and youth crime. We depict the complexity intrinsic to making an offer of restorative justice and the difficulties forces experienced in practice, given the cultural, practical and administrative challenges encountered during the course of three distinct pilot projects. Points of good practice, such as institutional buy-in, uncomplicated referral processes and adopting a victim-focused mindset are highlighted. Finally, we draw the results from the different projects together to suggest a seven-point set of requirements that need to be in place for the offer of restorative practice to become an effective and familiar process in policing.


Joanna Shapland
Joanna Shapland is Edward Bramley Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Daniel Burn
Daniel Burn is a former Research Officer at the University of Leeds, UK.

Adam Crawford
Adam Crawford is the Director of the Leeds Social Sciences Institute and Director of the N8 Policing Research Partnership at the University of Leeds, UK.

Emily Gray
Emily Gray is Senior Lecturer in Criminology, The School of Business, Law and the Social Sciences at the University of Derby, UK. Contact author: j.m.shapland@sheffield.ac.uk.
Article

The strategic use of terminology in restorative justice for persons harmed by sexual violence

Keywords Restorative justice, sexual violence, victim, survivor, feminism
Authors Shirley Jülich, Julienne Molineaux and Malcolm David Green
AbstractAuthor's information

    An argument for the importance of strategically selected terminology in the practice of restorative justice in sexual violence cases is presented through reviews of restorative justice, communication, social constructivist and feminist literature. The significance of language and its impact on those who use it and hear it is established from its use in classical antiquity, psychotherapy and semantics. The use of the terms ‘victim’ and ‘survivor’ is explored in the fields of legal definitions and feminist theory. Reports in the existing restorative justice literature are used to bring together the literature on the impact of the use of terminology and the legal and feminist understandings of the significance of the use of the terms ‘victim’ and ‘survivor’. We argue that the restorative justice practitioner has a crucial role in guiding the person harmed in sexual violence cases in the strategic use of ‘victim’ and ‘survivor’ to enhance the positive impact of terminology on the persons harmed in acts of sexual violence. Conclusions from our explorations support the creation of a proposed sexual violence restorative justice situational map for use as a navigational aid in restorative justice practice in sexual violence cases.


Shirley Jülich
Shirley Jülich is Senior Lecturer at the School of Social Work at the Massey University, New Zealand.

Julienne Molineaux
Julienne Molineaux is Senior Research Officer at the School of Social Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.

Malcolm David Green
Malcolm David Green is Assistant Lecturer at the School of Communication, Journalism, and Marketing at Massey University, New Zealand. Contact author: m.d.green@massey.ac.nz.
Article

Victim-offender mediation in Denmark: or how institutional placement and organisation matter

Keywords Danish VOM programme, police, victim-offender mediation, Norwegian Mediation Service, Konfliktråd
Authors Katrine Barnekow Rasmussen
AbstractAuthor's information

    In this article, the current state of the Danish police-based victim-offender mediation (VOM) programme is examined against the background of the Norwegian Mediation Service (NMS). In the two similar national languages both are called Konfliktråd, and the Danish programme – which was launched in 2010 – is named after and clearly inspired by the Norwegian service. Yet they differ in terms of organisational structure, capacity and use. Despite similar population size, the NMS completes around 12 times as many meetings as the Danish VOM programme. Furthermore, since 2016 the average number of meetings completed per year by the Danish programme has dropped significantly. In the article, I examine how the development of the Danish VOM programme has seemingly been held back by its placement in the police and also by a lack of clear prioritisation by management, political support and legal status. The VOM secretariat and local VOM coordinators attempt to mitigate the negative effects of these factors. Yet the framework of the Danish VOM programme seems to continue hindering the emulation of the Norwegian service in terms of capacity and use.


Katrine Barnekow Rasmussen
Katrine Barnekow Rasmussen is a PhD Fellow at the Faculty of Law of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Contact author: xsq276@ku.dk.
Article

Exploring amenability of a restorative justice approach to address sexual offences

Keywords Restorative justice, sexual abuse, victim-survivor, justice attitudes, gender
Authors Angela Hovey, BJ Rye and Courtney McCarney
AbstractAuthor's information

    This study aimed to explore current attitudes regarding the amenability of a restorative justice approach to addressing harms caused by sexual offences. A web-based survey of a university student sample included a specific narrative response question assessing empathetic responses to stepfather-teen sexual abuse scenarios. Many (78 per cent) participants endorsed a restorative justice approach, a substantial minority (19 per cent) of whom endorsed restorative justice while stipulating retributive justice conditions. Only 22 per cent completely rejected a restorative justice approach. The overarching theme was the dichotomous opinion of restorative justice as either a sufficient (e.g. best option, rehabilitative value) or insufficient (e.g. not enough punishment) response to addressing sexual offences. There was an overall self-reflective openness and willingness to consider a restorative justice approach to address sexual offences.


Angela Hovey
Angela Hovey, PhD, RSW, is an associate professor at the School of Social Work, Lakehead University, Orillia, Canada.

BJ Rye
BJ Rye, PhD, is an associate professor at the Departments of Psychology and Sexuality, Marriage, and Family Studies, St Jerome's University at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada.

Courtney McCarney
Courtney McCarney, MSW, RSW is a graduate of the School of Social Work, Lakehead University, Orillia, Canada. Contact author: Angela Hovey at ahovey@lakeheadu.ca

Gerd Delattre
Gerd Delattre was head of the TOA-Servicebureau by DBH e. V. in Cologne/Germany for over 20 years. He is considered a pioneer of victim-offender mediation in Germany.

Christoph Willms
Christoph Willms is assistant to the head of the TOA-Servicebureau by DBH e. V. Contact authors: gerd@delattre.de, christophwillms@web.de.

Christa Pelikan
Christa Pelikan is a senior researcher and senior consultant with the Institute for the Sociology of Law and Criminology in Vienna, Austria, she has been a founding member of the European Forum for Restorative Justice. Contact author: christa.pelikan@irks.at.

Tim Chapman
Tim Chapman is an independent researcher and trainer and chair of the European Forum for Restorative Justice since 2016. Contact author: info@timchapman.eu.

Susan Sharpe
Susan Sharpe recently retired from her position as Advisor on Restorative Justice at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. Contact author: ssharpe1@nd.edu.
Conversations on restorative justice

A talk with Martin Wright

Authors Albert Dzur
Author's information

Albert Dzur
Albert Dzur is Distinguished Research Professor, Departments of Political Science and Philosophy, Bowling Green State University, USA. Contact author: awdzur@bgsu.edu.

Linda Asquith
Linda Asquith is Course Director (Criminology), Leeds School of Social Sciences, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK. Contact author: l.m.asquith@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.

Yoko Hosoi
Yoko Hosoi is Emeritus Professor, Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan.

Tetsu Harayama
Tetsu Harayama is a Visiting Researcher, Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan.

Mary Jo Hebling
Mary Jo Hebling is a Faculty Lecturer at the International Institute for Restorative Practices, Bethlehem, USA. Contact author: maryjohebling@iirp.edu.

Ramkanta Tiwari
Ramkanta Tiwari is the chair of the Nepal Forum for Restorative Justice, Kathmandu, Nepal. Contact author: rtiwari@nepaljustice.org.