What is Restorative Justice?Click here for a short lecture by Prof. John Braithwaite, Australian National University. According to Gavrielides "Restorative Justice is an ethos with practical goals, among which is to restore the harm done by including all affected parties in a process of understanding through voluntary and honest dialogue, and by adopting a fresh approach to conflicts and their control, retaining at the same time certain rehabilitative goals" (Gavrielides 2007). |
August 2010 update:August was another important month for restorative justice in the UK. Home Office officials and Ministers started to contact projects and organisations delivering restorative justice. The new coalition government took keen interest in community and alternative methodologies that divert from the traditional criminal justice model. IARS' UK MEREPS project moves onto the research phase "Using restorative justice with incacerated young people". The UK project is carried out by Dr. Theo Gavrielides, IARS Director and Senior Research Fellow at Open University. It aims to investigate the usage of restorative justice with sentenced and incarcerated young people below the age of 18 in England and Wales. The UK is one of the MEREPS country partners that has some experience in the application of restorative justice within secure settings. The UK based research and policy project aims to complement the evaluation that is taking place in Germany and the parallel research that is being undertaken in Hungary so as to allow cross learning and information exchange. The fieldwork will be carried out over the next fews months focusing on practitioners, policy makers and incacerated young people. Contact Dr. Theo Gavrielides for more information |
July 2010 update:July has seen restorative justice being discussed in the UK Parliament and media. The new coalition's government wish to reduce prisoners' population and find alternative methods of addressing crime put restorative justice back on the agenda. This debate was complemented with the publication of a new report "Time for A Fresh Start" encouraging the use of restorative justice with juveniles. The Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour reports that restorative justice in Northern Ireland should provide the model for major changes to the youth justice system. The commission, which carried out an 18-month study into alternative responses to youth crime, concludes that restorative meetings known as "youth conferencing" are the way to deliver better justice for the victims of crime, while cutting re-offending rates and custody numbers. Gavrielides, IARS Director said "I am very pleased with the news. Another evidence based report documenting the potential and effectiveness of restorative justice. I hope that the current political, policy and economic climate works in favour of restorative justice this time". To read Gavrielides statement in full click here On 2nd July, Dr. Gavrielides, project leader for the UK side of the EU funded MEREPS project spoke at the UK College of Mediators conference at South Bank University. The conference titled "Tales from the Edge" was attended by leading mediators and researchers and focused on the issues of accreditation, standards and innovative practice. Dr. Gavrielides gave a presentation on restorative justice covering issues such as definitions, cost-benefit analysis of restorative justice as well as the need to push the barriers for mediation and other restorative justice practices. Dr Gavrielides spoke about MEREPS and other innovative restorative justice programmes to argue that innovation and accreditation/ standards are complementary and not at odds. To read the presentation click here. For the programme click here. MEREPS is funded by the EU. On 27 July, Dr. Gavrielides also attended the Restorative Justice Consortium annual conference "Creative a Restorative Capital". There he gave an update of IARS and MEREPS activities on restorative justice. Meanwhile, the MEREPS research on the use of mediation and other restorative justice programmes in juvenile institutions continues successfully. The research project plan which will be published next month includes in-depth case studies with juveniles who have received mediation as part of their sentence for committing a serious crime such as hate offences. Finally, Dr. Gavrielides and Prof. Artinopoulou submitted a paper for publication titled "Restorative justice with cases of violence against women". |
June 2010 update:The last three months have been extremely busy for the UK based project run by IARS for the EU funded Mediation and Restorative Justice in Prison Settings Project (MEREPS). Key updates: Events & Publications: Dr. Theo Gavrielides, IARS Director, has been invited to speak at a national conference on restorative justice. There, Dr. Gavrielides will be talking about the use of mediation and restorative justice post-sentencing and in prison settings. Furthermore, Dr. Gavrielides will be presenting two papers on restorative justice at the international conference of the European Society of Criminology due to be held in September in Liege. With regards to publications, IARS circulated its first London Youth Now newsletter featuring updates from MEREPS. Finally, Dr. Borballa Fellegi, Foresee Director, and Dr. Tunde Barabas, Head of Department National Institute of Criminology in Hungary have successfully submitted an abstract for the publication of a paper titled "Restorative justice and rights in prisons and post-sentencing: a Hungarian case study". This will feature in the Edited Volume "Rights and Restoration within youth justice" by Gavrielides, published by de Sitter Publications in 2012. Research: Following a successful study tour in London by our Hungarian partners, IARS has now started its research project for MEREPS. The UK based project aims to look at the use of mediation and restorative justice in juvenile institutions and post-sentencing. A research plan is currently being developed to include secondary and primary research with qualitative interviews with practitioners, service users and policy makers. Preliminary in-depth interviews have been carried out with organisations such as Probation and Safer London Foundation. |
March 2010 update:Between 9th and 11th November 2009, 13 Hungarian experts had the opportunity to attend a study tour in London as part of MEREPS. The main aim of the study tour was to give an overview of the legislative and policy framework for restorative justice in the UK, and also provide examples of restorative practices taking place both in and our of the formal criminal justice system setting. The Delegates: The Hungarian delegation included representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office, high-ranking officers of the Balassagyarmat Penitentiary, and experts of the Probation and Mediation service of the Office of Justice, the National Institute of Criminology and two non-governmental organisations: the Community Service Foundation Hungary, which is a member of the International Institute of Restorative Practices, and the Hungarian Crime Prevention and Prison Mission Foundation, which is an affiliate of the Prison Fellowship International. The Speakers: Presentations and workshops were held to give an overview of the current state of the theory and practice of restorative justice in the UK by the following speakers: To download the Study tour report click here |
September 2009 update:Dr. Theo Gavrielides (IARS, UK), Dr. Barabas Tunde (National Institute of Criminology, Hungary) and Lewis Parle (IARS, UK), partners in the MEREPS project publish three papers in Policy and Race Journal. Click the papers below to download them for free. L Parle (2009) "Restorative justice and youth sentencing" 1:1 Policy & Race Journal. |
April 2009 update:IARS starts a new three year project titled "Mediation and Restorative Justice in Prison Settings" (MEREPS), funded by the European Union and carried out in partnership with other European countries. The main object of the project is to explore the opportunities for implementing mediation and RJ practices into the prison settings. Further aim is to test if such practices can help supporting victims of crime, raising responsibility-taking in offenders, supporting the prison staff and inmates in peacefully resolving their internal conflicts and reintegrating offenders into society after release. Piloting RJ in the correctional settings also allows to test the potential of RJ in the most serious crimes that usually have a significant impact on both victims and offenders Click here to download the project flier |
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