Restorative Justice

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Introduction of the project Restorative Justice in Europe: Safeguarding Victims & Empowering Professionals”

By Patrick McKenna

Restorative Justice in Europe: Safeguarding Victims and Empowering Professionals (RJE) (JUST/2011-2012/JPEN/AG/2951) is a two-year EU funded project due to finish in December 2014. This project has been established to help facilitate the implementation of the new EU Victims Directive. The project will consult victims who have or have not been offered or taken part in a restorative justice process, in order to create auser-led evidence base for new materials. These materials will include protocols and guidelines, training manuals and programmes, and best practice guidance for providing restorative justice in the interests of victims.

Having examined the existing literature, the project is now at the research and new evidence stage. Over the coming months IARS, and our partners in Europe, will interview victims, offenders and facilitators to develop an evidence base for the new materials. The research questions for this stage have been developed through literature reviews in the UK, Germany, Bulgaria, Greece and the Netherlands.

This research has highlighted the concerns of all parties engaged in restorative justice, some of which are country-specific, but many of which are common to all. Among the more general concerns addressed in these reviews are: victim awareness of restorative justice, the relationship between victim support groups and restorative justice, victim satisfaction measures, suitable types of crime, restorative justice in secure institutions, training and practice standards, and the input of victims in the debate so far.

Patrick McKenna is a research and policy analyst at IARS in London. IARS is an independent, charitable think-tank who use evidence-based solutions to current social problems and support young people and the community to shape decision-making.

Patrick joined IARS in 2012 and began working on RJ4All, a free online platform for anyone interested in restorative justice. He also co-authored the final report for the “3E Model for a Restorative Justice Strategy in Europe” project with Dr Theo Gavrielides, which is due to be published later this year. He is currently the researcher on the “Restorative Justice in Europe: Safeguarding victims and Empowering Professionals Project”, a pan-European project focusing on victims’ perspectives of restorative justice, which is due to run until December 2014.

He completed his BA Politics at the University of Sheffield in 2012, having also spent a year studying at Monash University, Australia. His dissertation focussed on the relationship between truth and reconciliation in post-conflict societies, with a comparative study of the South African TRC and Rwandan Gacaca courts, which developed his interest in restorative justice.

 


With the financial support from the Criminal Justice Programme of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibilty of "Schleswig-Holsteinischer Verband für soziale Strafrechtpflege; Straffälligen- und Opferhilfe e.V" and can in no way be taken to refect the views of the European Commission.