Restorative justice

What is restorative justice? 

The agreed definition is that restorative justice is a process whereby parties with a stake in a specific offence collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future. Restorative justice re-directs control of the outcome of prosecution for a victim, by allowing victims to come face-to-face (in some cases) with a view to the offender taking accountability through greater understanding of the harm caused. 

The Restorative Justice All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) was formed in 2021, and this has since been reformed in July 2024 following the General Election. The reformation of this APPG includes a new leadership to drive the aims forwards. Pertinently, one of these aims is to raise the profile of restorative justice principles within Parliament. Most recently, a Dr Naomi Murphy has been assigned to the Board. Dr Murphy’s experience working in high-security prisons with offenders will be a useful asset when it comes to the consideration of the implementation of the principles of restorative justice. Dr Murphy also worked as a prominent TV psychologist, and this should inevitably help to bring restorative justice to the fore of people’s minds when considering its role in the criminal justice system. 

How does restorative justice work in practice? 

Restorative justice can be used at all stages of the criminal justice process, providing that certain conditions are met for this to take place. In practice, this could be after sentence, but in most cases, restorative justice is exercised before a case comes to court.  

Examples of restorative justice, prior to a case coming to court, include a condition as part of a conditional caution. The police could contact the victim to ask for their views on reparation as a condition of the caution. If the victim did wish to be involved, this could result in a meeting that is an example of direct restorative justice. These meetings are run by a trained facilitator and the intended outcome is for the victim to feel that they have discussed the consequences of the offence with the offender. The victim and offender may then come to an agreement on how the harm may be repaired by the offender – for example, they may agree the offender should make a formal apology. The offender must also be willing to participate; this is entirely voluntary. 

Restorative justice can also take place where the victim does not wish to meet with the offender face-to-face. This is a form of indirect restorative justice. This could include a community member who has also been affected by the crime partaking in a meeting with the offender. Even if this is not possible, restorative justice can be implemented through other means, for example, opportunities to provide reparation or compensation to any victim or relevant community, a financial penalty, or opportunities to provide unpaid work that ultimately benefits the community.  

Benefits of restorative justice  

The University of Sheffield, having been commission by the Ministry of Justice to evaluate three restorative justice schemes between 2001 and 2008, found that restorative justice led to a 14% reduction in the rate of offending. These schemes were set up and funded by the Home Office under the Crime Reduction Programme. The study does highlight that in all three schemes, the restorative justice was additional to normal criminal justice processes, and not as an alternative.  

One of these schemes was CONNECT, run by NACRO and the National Probation Service in London, and funded by the Home Office. This focused on restorative justice at the point between conviction and sentence, involving a wide range of offences involving personal victims. Another scheme that was evaluated during such study was REMEDI, that was allowed to expand in the early 2000s due to the Home Office funding. This scheme involved adult and youth cases, including youth cases that resulted in final warnings, referral orders and other youth justice sentences. This is important as one of the routes that may be available to youth offenders is family group conferencing, in which families can decide together how to deal with a problem, which can be used to deal with the youth offender’s bad behaviour. Ministry of Justice guidance does indeed state that restorative justice should form part of a youth caution wherever appropriate. Every police force in the United Kingdom therefore must play an active role in ensuring that this consideration is given due diligence.  

Restorative justice can also empower victims. It has been shown, in the study above to be particularly healing for a victim, to engage in restorative justice. The same study shows that restorative justice provides an 85% victim satisfaction rate. It is particularly notable that the impact of restorative justice engagement does not just benefit the recidivism rate (and the offenders in turn), but that it could facilitate the restoration of the public confidence through a more positive victim experience.  

How Olliers can help with restorative justice  

It is crucial that someone who is accused of committing a crime instructs a legal representative to navigate the complexities of the legal system. Without legal representation, an accused person navigating the system alone may find themselves subject to harsher criminal sanctions in a court of law, and not able to benefit from the restorative measures discussed above. At Olliers Solicitors, particularly when a case is at the pre-charge engagement stage, our expert solicitors can recognise when a case may benefit from the adoption of restorative justice, and this is pivotal for an accused person to achieve the best possible outcome. 

Contact our specialist criminal defence lawyers 

If you would like to explore how Olliers can assist you, please contact our specialist team by telephone on 020 3883 6790 (London), 0161 834 1515 (Manchester), via email at info@olliers.com or complete the website form below and we will contact you for a confidential discussion.