Evaluation

As the use of restorative practices grows experiments and into research into impact and what works seeks to inform this development.

. Does Forum Sentencing Reduce Re-Offending?

Forum Sentencing, based on the concept of restorative justice, is an alternative court sentencing procedure used by the New South Wales (NSW) courts since September 2005. Known officially as the Community Conference for Young Adults Pilot Program, this process is available to adult offenders who meet certain criteria for eligibility and suitability that enables them to be dealt with at a community conference rather than through regular court sentencing procedures. The purpose of this study was to examine the success of this program and determine whether young adult offenders who participated in Forum Sentencing were less likely to re-offend than those who received traditional sentencing. The study looked at four possible outcomes on the effectiveness of Forum Sentencing: 1) reducing the likelihood of re-offending; 2) increasing the time taken to re-offend; 3) reducing the frequency of subsequent offending; and/or 4) reducing the seriousness of subsequent offending. Results of the study found no evidence that Forum Sentencing had any impact on any of the four outcomes. Limitations of the study are discussed. (abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov).

. The effectiveness of reintegrative shaming and restorative justice conferences: Focusing on juvenile offenders' perceptions in Australian Reintegrative Shaming Experiments.

This article examines the effectiveness of diversionary restorative justice (RJ) conferences through the eyes of juvenile offenders. In Australia, Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE) are based on Braithwaite’s theory of reintegrative shaming. Previous studies, although showing that RISE reported high levels of victim satisfaction and positive changes in the attitudes of offenders, also demonstrated that it has different outcomes for juvenile offenders depending on the type of offense with which they were charged. However, the effectiveness of RISE in terms of the offenders’ perceptions has not been addressed, and the impact of the offenders’ perceptions about RISE still remains under investigation. Using Australian data from RISE between 1995 and 1999, this article examines juvenile offenders’ perceptions on preventing reoffending, repaying the victim and society, and the degree of repentance. The data were taken from interviews with juvenile offenders to measure their perceptions after the court or RISE processing. A comparison of standard court processing effects and RISE on juvenile offending, including property crime, shoplifting, and violent offenses, was undertaken. The results from this study were somewhat inconsistent with previous research. In this study, there was no significant relationship between RJ conference and the offenders’ own perceptions on the prevention of future offending. However, it was found that there were treatment effects on repaying the victim, repaying society, and the degree of feeling repentance, and that younger offenders wanted to repay the victim/society and feel repentance. (author's abstract)

. Youth justice conferences versus Children's Court: A comparison of re-offending.

After adjusting for other factors in the intention-to-treat analyses, no significant differences were found between conference and court participants in the proportion re-offending, the seriousness of their re-offending, the time to the first proven re-offence or the number of proven re-offences. Non-significant results were obtained regardless of whether the definition of re-offending included or excluded justice procedures offences. In the as-treated analyses, the results were similar. (excerpt)

Badlands or fairyland? How to misuse statistics and confuse the public

from Rethining Crime and Punishment's new newsletter Truth in Justice: If Truth in Justice were to have an annual award in 12 months time for the most inaccurate, misleading and appalling publication on crime and punishment, it is unlikely that anything would surpass Badlands: NZ - A Land Fit for Criminals by David Fraser and published by Ian Wishart. While we were reluctant to give it any more publicity, the book is a self-contained case study of what can happen when someone with a set ideological agenda sets out to prove their position through false logic and the misuse of statistics. It almost qualifies as a serious hazard to public safety. We asked three people to review the book. Each has approached it from a different perspective.

Barnes, Geoffrey. Procedural Justice in Two Contexts: Testing the Fairness of Diversionary Conferencing for Intoxicated Drivers

Fairness is a central issue in our scientific understanding of the law and criminal behavior. The fairness of legal proceedings has long been of interest in a variety of disciplines, but only recently have theory and research in criminology begun to focus upon the effects of fairness on illegal behavior. Procedural justice theory suggests that offenders who believe that they have been treated fairly will also be less likely to reoffend in the future. Empirical research has been generally supportive of this prediction, but is rather limited in volume and has been unable to establish an unambiguous direction of causality. The analysis presented here is a preliminary effort to bring the power of randomized experimentation to the criminological study of fairness. An Australian field experiment has randomly assigned 900 persons, all arrested for intoxicated driving, to one of two methods for dealing with their offense. Half of these drivers have had their cases referred to the courts in the traditional manner, while the other half have been offered the opportunity to attend a diversionary conference instead of going to court. Among other things, these conferences--which are broadly based upon the restorative justice ideals outlined by Braithwaite (1989; 1998)--are thought to be substantially different from court in terms of the fairness they offer to the offenders who participate in them.

Brignell, Georgia and Smart, Jane and Lawrie, Rowena and Brignell, Georgia and Potas, Ivan and Lawrie, Rowena and Thomas, Brendan and Brignell, Georgia and Smart, Jane and Potas, Ivan. Circle Sentencing in New South Wales: A Review and Evaluation

Part 1 presents the background and concept of circle sentencing. The process involves community members and offenders coming together to discuss the offense, the offender, and the consequences of the offense. The goal is to jointly arrive at an appropriate sentence for the offender. This justice process enjoyed success in Canada, spurring officials in New South Wales to adapt the process for use with Australian Aboriginal communities. A pilot circle sentencing initiative was undertaken at Nowra beginning in February 2002. The pilot program had 13 offender participants: 11 male and 2 female offenders. Part 2 reviews the circle sentencing procedures used in Nowra. Eight case examples of circle sentencing proceedings are presented throughout part 2 in order to demonstrate its practice. The case studies describe the circumstances of the offense, the proceedings, the sentence, and the progress reports at follow-up. Part 3 presents program evaluation results for the first 12 months of the programxe2x80x99s operation. Participants in circle sentencing were surveyed throughout 2002. Surveys were completed by community members, defense solicitors, police, prosecutors, the magistrate, defendants, and victims. The evaluation indicates that circle sentencing in Nowra has been effective in many ways. This type of justice model has been effective at reducing barriers between the courts and Aboriginal people; raising the level of support for Aboriginal people; incorporating victim support; empowering the Aboriginal community; offering relevant sentencing options with community support; and reducing recidivism. Part 4 assesses the role of circle sentencing in New South Wales given the success of the first circle sentencing pilot program. Given the positive results of the program, the only deficit discovered was the time commitment required to process an offender through circle sentencing. Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Conventional and innovative justice responses to sexual violence

from the article by Kathleen Daly in ACSSA Issues: Despite 30 years of significant change to the way the criminal justice system responds to sexual violence, conviction rates have gone down in Australia, Canada, and England and Wales. Victim/survivors continue to express dissatisfaction with how the police and courts handle their cases and with their experience of the trial process. Many commentators and researchers recognise that the crux of the problem is cultural beliefs about gender and sexuality, which dilute and undermine the intentions of rape law reform.2 These beliefs affect victims adversely, but at the same time, increased criminalisation and penalisation of offenders is not likely to yield constructive outcomes. This paper reflects on the limits of legal reform in improving outcomes for victim/survivors. Given the extent of reform to procedural, substantive, and evidentiary aspects of sexual assault legal cases, we may have exhausted its potential to change the response to sexual assault. We may need to consider innovative justice responses, which may be part of the legal system or lie beyond it.

Criminal, victim meetings 'don't stop recidivism'

from the article by Eleanor Bell on 702 ABC Sydney: ....The New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics has analysed a program that brings young offenders face-to-face with victims of crime. It says it makes no difference to the rate at which they go on to commit more crimes.

Cunningham, Teresa. Pre-court diversion in the Northern Territory: impact on juvenile reoffending.

A juvenile pre-court diversion scheme was introduced in the Northern Territory in 2000. Administered by police, it uses warnings and conferences to divert selected juveniles from the court process. This paper reports on an analysis of Northern Territory police records on 3,597 apprehended juveniles over a 5 year period. Findings showed that the great majority of juveniles (76%) did not reoffend within the first year after their initial diversion or court appearance. However, there were significant differences between juveniles who attended court and those who were diverted, both in terms of risk of reoffending and time to reoffending. Those who were diverted reoffended less than those who attended court and those who went to court reoffended more quickly. Property offenders who attended court were 30 percent more at risk of reoffending than violent offenders. Further work is required to see if the different effects for court versus diversion remain if prior offending history is taken into account. The significant differences in offending related to age, gender, Indigenous status and location confirm the need for specific responses to particular groups of juveniles. (author's abstract)

Daly, Kathleen and Curtis-Fawley, Sarah. Restorative Justice for Victims of Sexual Assault

This article analyzes the use of restorative justice (RJ)practices in cases of juvenile sexual assault through the use of two case studies from South Australia. Following the analysis, the authors conclude that the empowering process of RJ for victims of sexual assault may be one way of “redefining the realities” of these crimes. The two cases of sexual assault involved youthful male offenders and youthful female victims and both were finalized by a family conference in South Australia. The first case involved a confident victim who was described as knowing what she wanted from the family conference process. Although she had a positive experience, the victim had two main criticisms of the process. First, she believed the process was procedurally unfair in that she had no influence over what should be included in the agreement. Second, the victim believed the agreement was too lenient on the offender. In the second case study, which involved intrafamilial sexual intercourse, family conflict clouded the conference and the victim reported feeling intimidated by the offender during the process. Each case is followed by a discussion of the problems and benefits of using RJ practices in sexual assault cases in light of the experiences of the victims. One of the main problems cited with the use of RJ for sexual assault cases was the power imbalances that were evident between victims and offenders as well as between victims and offender advocates and youth court staff. Benefits to utilizing an RJ approach included victim empowerment through telling their stories and the requirement that offenders take responsibility for the offense. The case studies presented here were drawn from an in-depth study of 14 sexual and family violence cases finalized by family conference during the last part of 2005 in South Australia. An archival analysis was also performed on 387 juvenile sexual offenses finalized between 1995 and 2001 by formal caution, conference, or in Youth Court.

Diverting Young Adults from Prison in NSW

The New South Wales (NSW) Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research recently released an evaluation report of a pilot community conferencing programme targeting young adults. The programme seeks to divert persons between the ages of 18 and 24 from prison to community conferences. The report discusses results from a survey of conference participants as well as interviews and focus group meetings with key stakeholders in Liverpool and Tweed Heads – the two local courts participating in the pilot programme.

Editor. Restorative Justice Conferences Reduce Trauma from Crime, Study Shows

Dr. Caroline M. Angel conducted a study showing the psychological effects of restorative justice conferencing on post traumatic stress symptoms and found that conferencing significantly reduced those symptoms.

Editor. Restorative Justice with adult offenders, post-sentence is safe, reduces re-offending, cost less, saves money and delivers better outcomes

A summation of Joanna Shapland's fourth and final report about conclusions drawn from seven restorative justice projects established in the UK.

Fitzgerald, Jacqueline and Vignaendra, Sumitra. Reoffending Among Young People Cautioned by Police or Who Participated in Youth Justice Conference.

This study investigated the rate of reoffending among young people who were cautioned by New South Wales (NSW) Police or who participated in a youth justice conference for the first time in 1999. Results of this study showed that continued contact with the criminal justice system also occurred among those participating in diversionary alternatives to court; however, this contact seemed less common. This is particularly true for offenders who are older at their first caution or conference, female offenders, and non-Indigenous offenders. Although the study showed a clear difference in the rate of appearance in court for those given a caution versus a conference, this difference should not be taken as an indication of the relative effectiveness of cautions versus conferences in reducing juvenile reoffending. Since 1998, a significant proportion of young offenders in New South Wales (NSW) have been dealt with by warning caution or youth justice conference under the Young Offenders Act of 1997 rather than proceeding through the traditional court system. Utilizing two cohorts of young people, one of which was cautioned by NSW Police in 1999 and the other completing a youth justice conference, this study describes the likelihood and frequency of reoffending, the time it takes to reoffend, and the likelihood of receiving a penalty of imprisonment all within 5 years of the caution or conference. (Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Harris, Nathan. Family Group Conferencing in Australia 15 Years On.

This paper provides a comparison of the implementation and use of conferencing in Australian States and Territories, and discusses the implementation of conferencing relative to the original conferencing model developed by New Zealand. While Australian States may not systematically empower families in the same way as New Zealand, this does not mean that the conferencing programs in Australia are not of considerable value. Conferences that are conducted offer families an important chance for reflection, empower families to develop their own plans to various degrees, and have many other benefits. A number of Australian jurisdictions have developed strong conferencing programs in which there is considerable expertise in facilitation. Family group conferences were first legislated for in New Zealand in 1989 and today family group conferences represent a significant innovation in child protection practice. Their success in engaging families and communities in problem-solving seems to be unique. Child protection systems in Australia, as in many other countries, have subsequently introduced conferencing programs. The first trial in family group conferencing was initiated in Victoria in 1992. This paper is based on a report that was prepared for the Australian Center for Child Protection. A workshop sponsored by the Center in 2005 brought together conferencing practitioners from a number of States and Territories to discuss the current use of conferencing in Australia. What emerged was a sense that little information was available about those programs and a fear that the early progress made had stalled. In response, the Australian Center for Child Protection decided to conduct a study that mapped the adoption of conferencing in child protection systems across Australia. This paper provides a synopsis of the project report.(Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov).

Harris, Nathan. Reintegrative Shaming, Shame, and Criminal Justice.

This study tested the implication of reintegrative shaming theory (RST) (Braithwaite, 1989) that social disapproval (shaming) has an effect on the emotions that offenders feel. Interviews were conducted with 720 participants who had recently attended a court case or family group conference in the Australian Capital Territory, having been apprehended for driving while over the legal alcohol limit. Analyses show that shame-related emotions were predicted by perceptions of social disapproval, but that the relationship was more complex than expected. Differences between the shame-related emotions may have implications for theory. Comparisons between the court cases and family group conferences were consistent with expectations that restorative justice interventions would be more reintegrative, but also showed that they were not perceived as less stigmatizing. (author's abstract)

Hassall, I and Maxwell, Gabrielle and Robertson, J. and Maxwell, Gabrielle. A Briefing Paper: An Appraisal of the First Year of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989

Three papers describe changes brought about by the New Zealand Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989. The first paper examines the Family Group Conference as an innovative method of involving families in statutory care and protection and youth justice processes. The second paper presents statistical data for 1990 on the disposition of children and youth who came to attention, under either the care and protection or youth justice provisions of the Act. The third article finds that the number of arrests, court appearances, convictions and court orders sharply decreased following passage of the act.

Hayes, Hennessey and Prenzler, Tim and Palk, Gerard and Hayes, Hennessey. Restorative justice and community conferencing: summary of findings from a pilot study

Empirical research in juvenile justice has not kept up with the central momentum of 'restorative justice' reforms. While there seems to be growing support for the restorative notion of various initiatives like victim-offender mediation and conferencing, there has been relatively little systematic research on the effectiveness of such initiatives. Recognizing the need for systematic evaluation of these types of initiatives, the Queensland Department of Justice commissioned an evaluation of its 'community conferencing' pilot project. (excerpt)

Hayes, Hennessey. Youth Justice Conferencing and Re-Offending in Queensland

Community conferencing was introduced in Queensland with proclamation of the amended Juvenile Justice Act 1992. A community conference is a meeting where young offenders, their victims and supporters come together to discuss the offence and what should be done about it. In April 1997 the Queensland Department of Justice initiated a "pilot" conferencing project in two southeast jurisdictions (Logan and Ipswich). From February to May 1998, colleagues and I (Hayes et al. 1998) evaluated the two southeast projects. Results showed that participants (ie., offenders, victims and supporters) were largely satisfied with conferencing processes and felt they had been treated fairly and with respect. In this paper I summarise findings from the first conferencing and re-offending study undertaken in Queensland. The study is grounded on data collected from young offenders conferenced from April 1997 to May 1999 (N=200). The main findings are consistent with results from similar studies in New Zealand and South Australia and show that young persons’ prior offending histories bear heavily on post-conference behaviour. Just over half (51%) of young people conferenced came to their restorative event with prior officially detected offending, and a similar proportion (56%) went on to commit a further offence. While post-conference offending did occur, median annual post-conference offending rates were nominal (one offence per year). Furthermore, in Queensland, the effect of conference features in dissuading further offending behaviour was difficult to discern largely because conferences in the Queensland context are less variable events compared to other jurisdictions. That is, levels of participant satisfaction with conference events and outcomes were very high (mid- to high-90% range) and stable across participant groups; conference size and duration were not related to post-conference outcomes. Author's Abstract.

Juvenile Re-Offending after Family and Victim Offender Conferences

In 2000, the Australian state of Northern Territory implemented a juvenile pre-court diversion scheme. Teresa Cunningham summarizes her research study into the scheme’s impact on re-offending.