Over 80 percent pleased with restorative justice conferences: victim survey

Recommendations

The report recommended that restorative justice providers: 

• Support and invest in the continued use of in-person conferences if possible, since in-person meetings tended to lead to higher satisfaction and stronger perceptions of feeling prepared and heard 
• Improve facilitator training and consistency to address rising concerns regarding facilitator control and effectiveness 
• Enhance trauma-informed victim preparation and reassurance to help with nervousness, particularly among women and younger adults 
• Add clear follow-up protocols to support closure and satisfaction 
• Focus on offender sincerity, which influenced how beneficial the experience felt 
• Promote meaningful offender engagement and screen out performative participation
• Monitor demographic trends and age-related differences, given that positive impacts and willingness to recommend tended to increase with age 

More on restorative justice

According to the report, the restorative justice process seeks to: 

• allow offenders to apologise and acknowledge the harm they caused 
• foster accountability for criminal offending 
• reduce reoffending 
• promote understanding 
• repair the harm to victims, their whānau, and the community, if possible 
• enable victims to voice the impacts of offending 
• help everybody involved heal 

The report explained that the facilitator weighs the safety of the restorative justice process at each step. After a conference, the facilitator reports to the judge what happened and whether the participants reached any agreement. The judge then considers the report when sentencing. 

In New Zealand, the restorative justice process occurs through the police adult diversion scheme or by referral from the District Court after an offender’s guilty plea. The report noted that the justice ministry contracts 21 community-based providers to offer restorative justice services across the country.