The criminal justice system often leaves victims feeling ignored and neglected, restorative justice can change that

7 March 2025, 18:01

I’m delighted to have been appointed to the Restorative Justice All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG). I am really looking forward to supporting the important and progressive work of this group.

Restorative Justice is a relatively new concept to be adopted in the United Kingdom.

The Ministry of Justice funded a 7-year study that was completed in 2008 and found that not only were 85% victims satisfied with the process but that it reduced reoffending by 14% and led to £9 being saved for every £1 that was spent.

This APPG is exploring other ways to maximise the benefits of restorative justice work.

Restorative justice most commonly involves mediation between someone who’s been harmed and someone who perpetrated the harm.

Research often finds that those who’ve been harmed experience more satisfaction, support and healing with restorative justice than with retributive justice (eg Strang et al, 2006).

Why is this?

Within the criminal justice system victims often feel ignored, neglected, or even abused by the justice process. Howard Zehr highlights 4 needs of victims that restorative justice seeks to overcome: information, truth-telling, vindication and empowerment.

Firstly, victims want information and answers to questions they have about the offence. They want to understand why it happened so they can end the rumination that comes with speculation.

They don’t want to rely on legal documents which reflect constraints such as a plea agreement and they can only get this real information if they have direct access to those who caused the harm.

Secondly, victims often want to understand the actual truth. Truth means someone is taking accountability for the harm caused.

This provides the victim with the ability to transform the narrative of what happened and have some public acknowledgement of how they’ve been wronged.

Restorative Justice also allows the victim to have their full truth heard too. The perpetrator must sit in the discomfort of understanding the consequences that their acts had for those they’ve harmed.

Thirdly, in taking responsibility and being willing to participate, some perpetrators are seen as making an effort to say, “I am responsible, you are not to blame”.

Fourthly, victims often feel they’ve lost control of their own bodies, information, emotions in the justice system. They are forced to take a back seat whilst a procedure plays out for the person who harmed them.

Involvement in restorative justice allows the victim to feel they are playing an important part in the process of justice. Not retributive justice where the perpetrator is centred but in what justice means for them and their lives.

Involvement in their own cases as they go through the restorative justice process can be an important way to return a sense of empowerment to them.

Restorative Justice and its principles represent a far more progressive approach to managing the impact of harm than reliance on retribution.

Retribution tends to fragment and separate communities (eg by removing the perpetrator) whilst restorative justice seeks to repair our communities and bring us back together.

We can see how vulnerable our society is to being divided right now. We need practices that can bring us back together not those which push us apart.

The Restorative Justice All Party Parliamentary Group will address all of the above in its important ground-breaking work in the British Justice System.

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