Mitigation and Risk in Restorative Justice

Grant details

Scottish Government (£2,160)

Project start and end dates

November 2021-present

Research team members

• PI: Professor Joanna Shapland
• CI: Dr Jamie Buchan
• CI: Dr Steve Kirkwood
• CI: Dr Estelle Zinsstag

Background and aims of the project

The aim of the project was to find out about the risk mitigation strategies experienced restorative justice facilitators use when risks to participation in restorative justice are identified for any participant or other person, as required by international instruments. There has been almost no research on this. The areas considered included how facilitators identify risks (including in serious and complex cases), what (if any) instruments they use, and their experience of the effectiveness of different risk mitigation measures. Given there is much more experience in other countries of dealing with more serious cases and different kinds of cases over a longer time span than in Scotland, participants interviewed were experienced facilitators from different European jurisdictions: Scotland, England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Republic of Ireland, France, Austria and Estonia.

Methods

Facilitators were interviewed virtually, using a qualitative and in-depth topic guide. They were also requested to send any questionnaire or checklist they routinely used for risk assessment and mitigation of risks.

Key findings to date

• Assessment of risks and potential mitigatory measures is about the risk of proceeding with the restorative justice process, not (as in criminal justice evaluation) about eventual outcomes from any restorative justice undertaken. All potential participants need to be considered.
• The key aspect is to find out what the participants wish to obtain from participation in restorative justice and their own assessment of potential risks and available mitigatory means, and discuss with the participant what is coming out of this preparatory phase. So risks are individual and must be related to the proposed restorative justice process which may be used.
• Very different risks can occur for different cases - there is no standardised set, nor are instruments commonly used, though we could group risks into key areas
• Assessment of mitigation and risk has to be ongoing throughout the process.
• However serious the offence and situation, it is rare for it to be necessary for restorative justice to be stopped. Where this occurs it is because the problem relates to the core values of restorative justice not being able to be achieved, such as inability to communicate, or threat to other participants.

Project publications to date

• Shapland, J., Buchan, J., Kirkwood, S. and Zinsstag, E. (2022) Mitigation and risk in restorative justice. Edinburgh: Restorative Justice Forum (Scotland) for Scottish Government.
• Shapland, J., Buchan, J., Kirkwood, S. and Zinsstag, E (2023). ‘Mitigating risk in restorative justice’, International Journal of Restorative Justice, vol. 6, doi: 10.5553/TIJRJ.000176 (online first)