Victim participation in a restorative justice process : the Canberra Reintegrative Shaming Experiments

Abstract

This thesis addresses the role of victims in our criminal justice system and the shortcomings they perceive in the way they are treated. It examines whether restorative justice can offer then more justice that they receive from the formal court-based system. Before the rise of the modern state, restorative justice was the dominant model of resolution for disputes and criminal actions. However, the victim’s role in Western criminal justice declined over time, until only a vestigial and debased part as a witness for the prosecution remained. Research into the shortcomings of the court-based system has identified a number of issues that victims want to address. In brief, they are found to want a less formal process where their views count, more information about both the processing and the outcome of their case is dealt with, fairer and more respectful treatment, and emotional as well as material restoration as an outcome. Over the three decades, the victim movement worldwide has agitated for an enhanced role of victims in criminal justice. Despite some successes, it appears that structural as well as political factors may mean that victims have won as much as they are likely to gain form formal justice. The Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE) in Canberra provide an opportunity to compare the impact on victims of court-based justice with a restorative justice program known as conferencing. This randomised controlled trial assigned middle-range property and violent offences committed by young offenders either to court (as they would normally have been treated) or to a conference. The study achieved a love level of treatment crossover (three percent) and a high victim interview response (85 percent). With material restoration, while few in either treatment group received money, conference victims were more often offered non-financial restitution. With emotional restoration, conference victims tended to express higher levels of satisfaction than court victims. Their feelings of anger fear and anxiety towards their offender fell markedly after their conference while feelings of security for themselves and sympathy for their offender increased. The conference usually had a beneficial effect on victims’ feelings of dignity, self respect and self-confidence and led to reduced levels of embarrassment and shame about the offence. Overall, victims most often said their conference had been a helpful experience in allowing them to feel more settled about the offence, to feel forgiving towards their offender and to experience a sense of closure. Court victims, especially those who had experienced violent crimes, felt much more afraid of revictimisation than their conference counterparts, and also more vengeful towards their offenders. Almost all victims in both treatment groups said that they wanted an apology from their offenders, but an apology was six times more likely to be offered to conference victims than court victims. Conference victims also expressed high levels of satisfaction about the way they were kept…