Abstract
This paper is concerned with the nature and complexities of restorative justice. It uses Braithwaite’s (Br J Criminol 42:563–577, 2002a) framework of constraining, maximising and emerging restorative standards to understand the interactions that underpin success and failure in practice, i.e., ‘restorativeness’. Using qualitative data from observations of youth justice conferences in New South Wales, Australia, the roles of empowerment (as an example of a constraining standard), restoration of communities (as an example of a maximising standard) and remorse over injustice (as an example of an emergent standard) are examined. Findings confirm that restorative justice is best conceived as a continuum of dynamic process and outcome related values. Non-domination is paramount to achieving restorative justice. However, the presence, absence, and nature of other values such as storytelling, respectful listening, victim and support attendance, and apology are also important. They affect where a restorative event falls on the restorative continuum, and they affect the likelihood of other standards being met.
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Notes
A full evaluation of a restorative event would reference each of Braithwaite’s twenty-five restorative standards, however this it outside the scope of this paper.
A ‘victim’ is defined as (NSW Young Offenders Act, p. 4) a person who suffers harm as a direct result of an act committed, or apparently committed, by a child in the course of a criminal offence. A person suffers harm if, as a result of such an act: (a) the person suffers actual physical bodily harm, mental illness or nervous shock, or (b) the person’s property is deliberately taken, destroyed or damaged, a victim that is an organisation or a government authority may be represented by an officer of, or other person nominated by, the organisation or authority.
In NSW the term ‘young person who has committed an offence’ is used to refer to the young offender responsible for the offence for which a conference is held. This reflects the underlying philosophy of the Young Offenders Act where offending behaviours are seen as incident specific rather than reflective of long term patterns of behaviour. This is an important semantic. However because many conferences are held for victims who are also ‘young people’, the term ‘young offender’ will be used in this paper for this distinction to be made with ease.
Though the victim loses this power of veto if they do not attend or send a victim representative.
It is likely that for different reasons many participants feel a degree of shame during the conference process and this could be mapped using Nathanson’s compass approach. However in this study, primarily due to time constraints, the focus was on the offender’s affect.
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This paper is based on research conducted for my Doctoral Dissertation, Creating Space for Young People, Dialogue and Decision Making: Youth Justice Conferencing in New South Wales Australia. 2005, University of New South Wales.
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Bolitho, J.J. Restorative Justice: The Ideals and Realities of Conferencing for Young People. Crit Crim 20, 61–78 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-011-9150-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-011-9150-z