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

The exclusion of serious and organised offenders and their victims from the offer of restorative justice: Should this be so and what happens when the offer is put on the table?

“…Senior leaders within the police were overwhelmingly more supportive of RJ compared to their managerial counterparts, with over a quarter of the middle managers expressing the view that RJ should be trialled and nearly 60% of the senior leaders advocating such an experimental approach. This finding corroborates with Stockdale’s (2015) study which found similar differences in approach in relation to the implementation of RJ in a small force between senior leaders, middle managers and operational staff as well as Shapland et al’s (2017) study which found differences between ranks of staff within police forces.…”

Just an ‘optional extra’ in the ‘victim toolkit’?: The culture, mechanisms and approaches of criminal justice organisations delivering restorative justice in England and Wales

“…However, this nudging and prompting did not result in all victims being systematically provided with information – from the findings of the interviews and observations undertaken with the RJCOs and VWCOs no amount of nudging improved the likelihood of some professionals offering restorative justice to victims. While the use of these direct and indirect nudges and prompts by restorative justice staff to criminal justice professionals is not new, these findings provide further support to the findings of Shapland et al’s (2011, 2017) study that case extraction increases referral numbers. Furthermore, Shapland et al (2017) proposed the use of electronic prompts and referrals routes to encourage police referrals and foster VCOP compliance.…”

“…This questioning as to whether they were the right people to be discussing restorative justice with victims, may be due to the lack of formal process and awareness of their responsibilities under the VCOP. This lack of awareness that they were statutorily obligated to provide victims with information on restorative justice was also found in Shapland et al’s (2017) recent research on developing restorative policing. Shapland et al (2017) found that the VCOP requirement to provide victims with information about restorative justice and how they might take part had not filtered through to police officers and there was a lack of understanding that it was their responsibility as police officers to ensure that this information was relayed to victims.…”

Institutionalizing Restorative Justice in New Zealand's Criminal Justice System: Gains, Losses and Challenges for the Future

“…Practical concerns are necessary to address in this analysis given the understanding of institutionalization as the process by which restorative structural norms, principles and practices are incorporated into a regulating body (Berger & Luckman, 1966;DiMaggio & Powell, 1991). While principle alignment is a foundational and distinguishing component of sociological institutionalismand further strengthened by supporting guidelines and statutory provisionsrestorative initiatives need to be implemented in daily practice and procedure if it is to have greater impact on the institution and for those whom the institution is intended to serve (Shapland, Burn, Crawford & Gray, 2020).…”