Restorative justice informed criminal justice social work and probation services

Abstract

Despite the growth of restorative justice (RJ) research, theory and practice, little work has explored its implications for criminal justice social work (CJSW) and probation services. Our analysis demonstrates that an RJ ‘lens’ transforms the view of CJSW, enlarging the scope to help people make amends for harm, magnifying the role for victims of crime, refocusing on the meaningfulness of reparative acts and clarifying the role of communities in reintegration. Our vision of RJ informed CJSW and probation services offers a way of shifting practice to help people repair harm, make good and move on with their lives.

Restorative Practices in Institutional Settings: The Challenges of Contractualised Support within the Managed Community of Supported Housing

“…The case study of the Restorative Communities Programme helps us to illustrate two key areas of consideration for those planning restorative programmes: the dangers of contractualised support and the impact that this has on the voluntary and free nature of interactions with such programmes as well as the difficulties in creating and engaging with participants where there is a 'managed community'. As such, the findings in this paper also have important relevance for similar restorative schemes in other institutional settings, for example, those programmes deployed in schools (Wearmouth et al 2007;Teasley 2014), in prisons (Dhami et al 2009;Calkin 2021;Kim 2021), in social work and social care (Parkinson et al 2018), and in probation (Kirkwood and Hamad 2019). At a broader level, then, it is important to consider how far schemes of this nature can go in bringing about positive outcomes.…”

“…There is growing success with these approaches in a number of other similar institutional settings and across the world. For example, in schools, where restorative approaches are an alternative to detentions, expulsions, and suspensions (Wearmouth et al 2007;Teasley 2014); in prisons, to develop thinking, reasoning, and positive cultures (Dhami et al 2009;Calkin 2021;Kim 2021); and across broad applications in social work, social care (Parkinson et al 2018), and probation (Kirkwood and Hamad 2019).…”

“…These issues are in part structural, related to how supported housing and other such institutionalized settings work, for instance those programmes deployed in schools (Wearmouth et al 2007;Teasley 2014), in prisons (Dhami et al 2009;Calkin 2021;Kim 2021), in social work and social care (Parkinson et al 2018), and in probation (Kirkwood and Hamad 2019). In this case, supported housing provides both a home for those in need as well as behavioural boundaries over and above those that would be applied in a private or rented home, including a requirement (of some degree) to engage in the support on offer to tackle the issue that led to the need for that supported housing in the first place.…”

The Local Provision of Restorative Justice in Scotland: an Exploratory Empirical Study

“…This sector has to be entirely re-imagined, considering, for instance, how to promote self-referrals or referrals from within the community, or, more broadly, how a 'social RJ' would work for adults (cf. Kirkwood and Hamad 2019).…”

Restorative Practice in the Criminal Justice System: Examining a Restorative Reasoning Programme in a Women’s Prison

“…There is a significant body of work examining the use of restorative practices in various setting, particularly in settings that have some form of institutional structure; for example, across social work and social care in dealing with issues such as elder abuse (Parkinson et al 2018); in probation services, as a method to help offenders repair the harm they have caused and move on with their lives (Kirkwood and Hamad 2019); and in policing (Marder 2020). Such work falls into what is often characterised as the classic definitions of restorative justice as programmes that are about "getting reparation, taking responsibility and achieving reconciliation" (McCold and Wachtel 2003).…”