NCJ Number
213981
Date Published
2006
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This chapter presents a case study on the process of developing a set of principles for restorative justice (RJ) practices and policies in the United Kingdom (UK) from an insider’s perspective.
Abstract
The author is a former member of a policy group that was responsible for the development of guiding principles for RJ practices and policies in the United Kingdom. In 2002, the UK’s Restorative Justice Consortium’s (RJC) determined it was time to revise the Standards for Restorative Justice, mainly in response to a number of criticisms of the document, including the observation that the standards failed to address the relationship between formal criminal justice agencies and RJ agencies. Additionally, the United Kingdom had experienced a rapid growth of RJ practices, leading to the need for guidance and regulation of RJ practice in order to preserve its values. An account is offered of the review and revision of the Standards for Restorative Justice, including a listing of the agreed upon premises of the standards. This section focuses specifically on the six main issues that caused debate during the revision of the standards for RJ practices: (1) the nature of the relationship between RJ practices and the traditional legal system; (2) the relevance of rights as the foundation for the principles; (3) the extent to which voluntariness should be an overarching principle; (4) issues concerning proportionality in restorative and reparative agreements; (5) whether RJ is a process or an outcome; and (6) the extent to which remorse or effective conclusion of a restorative or reparative agreement should impact the outcome of traditional criminal processes. Each of these debates is discussed in turn before the author turns to a brief reflection on the revision process in which he states that it is necessary to have an ethical theory of law in place as a foundation for a restorative theory of justice. Appendix, references