Restorative Justice

• Strength of restorative justice

  • It has rehabilitative value
• Findings from a seven year research project (Shapland et al 2008)

  • 85% of survivors reported satisfaction with the process of meeting their offender face to face
  • 78% would recommend it to other people experiencing a similar situation
  • About 60% of survivors felt the process had made them feel better about the incident, enabling them to feel closure and to move on
  • Only 2% said it made them feel worse
• Restorative justice achieves some of its aims, helping survivors of crime to cope with the aftermath of the incident
• Restorative justice can be seen as an effective way to deal with offending that works to produce positive outcomes for survivors
• Further strength of restorative justice

  • It decreases rates of recidivism
• Findings from a meta-analysis of 10 studies by Strang et al (2013)

  • Offenders who experienced face to face restorative justice schemes had lower rates of reoffending than those who just experienced custodial sentencing
  • Reduction was larger in offenders convicted of violent crime than crimes against property
• Findings from a review of 24 published studies by Bain (2012)


  • Lowered recidivism rates with adult offenders, especially when using one to one contact rather than general community involvement
• Restorative justice has a positive impact on reoffending, possibly more so for some types of offences than others, meaning it is an effective way to deal with offenders long term
• Limitation of restorative justice

  • Offenders may simply abuse the system
• The success of restorative justice programmes rely on an offenders intentions being honourable
• Reasons offenders may use restorative justice (Gijseghem 2003)

  • Avoiding punishment
  • Playing down their faults
  • Taking pride in their relationship with their survivor
• Not all offenders ultimately benefit from restorative justice and go on to reoffend
• The effectiveness of restorative justice can be seen as limited, as it will only work to provide positive outcomes for both offenders and survivors when those who agree to take part have the best of intentions