While in some European and extra-European countries the incorporation of restorative justice into policy frameworks is a dated and widely studied phenomenon, in others it is a more recent and scarcely researched process. The Scottish Government is making renewed efforts to institutionalise restorative justice including the ambitious goal of making adult restorative justice available nationwide by 2023. In this article, we analyse the consequences of these recent attempts, addressing a gap in knowledge on adult restorative justice in Scotland. We gathered views from justice professionals ( n = 17), involved in organising and delivering adult restorative justice, on the implementation of the policy and the future of Scottish restorative justice. Findings show that participants support expanding restorative justice services, but are sceptical about the Scottish Government’s approach. They advocate for a coordinated but locally sensitive model of restorative justice development, to some extent challenging the stark opposition between ‘purist’ and ‘maximalist’ approaches to the expansion of restorative justice. These findings generate evidence to critically assess Scottish restorative justice policy and its implementation, while drawing implications for the development of restorative justice across Europe.

Institutionalising restorative justice for adults in Scotland: An empirical study of criminal justice practitioners’ perspectives

In the UK, Australia, and further afield, restorative programmes have been developed as a response to the failure of the criminal justice system to give victims of sexual violence a voice in the legal process. The restorative justice literature has tended to focus on sexual offences perpetrated by adults and the importance of being victim centred. When it is a child or young person (CYP) who sexually harms, it poses a unique set of challenges for law and society and the restorative practitioner. This article explores the reasons why a different approach may be warranted given the perceived failure of conventional criminal justice in addressing the growing problem of child and adolescent harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) in Scotland. It discusses the difficulties with balancing the rights of the victim with the CYP who perpetrates the HSB and considers the challenges encountered by practitioners in the implementation and application of restorative programmes in HSB cases involving CYP. Although the evidence supports a growing need for a different approach, and restorative justice may offer just that, problems with net widening, the referral process, and resistance from other professionals and victim advocacy groups present real barriers. Consequently, restorative practitioners are likely to find practising in this area more challenging due to a lack of support and cooperation.

Is restorative justice an effective approach in responding to children and young people who sexually harm

This article presents the results of the first empirical qualitative research on the provision of restorative justice (RJ) in Scotland, based on interviews with 14 practitioners. In Scotland, RJ has attracted the attention of penal reformers and practitioners since the late 1980s, offering an alternative to criminal justice practices based on retribution and/or rehabilitation whilst promising to reduce reoffending and heal people harmed by crime. In 2017, the Scottish Government has fully recognized the existence of RJ by issuing the first national ‘Guidance’ for the delivery of this process, followed by an ambitious ‘Action Plan’. In spite of such a long-lasting interest and recent policy recognition, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the organization and actual delivery of RJ in Scotland. In fact, research on this subject is scant, anecdotal and dated. This article addresses this knowledge gap by presenting original data on the provision of RJ within Scottish local authorities. The findings show similar understandings of RJ, context-specific organizational models and common systemic challenges characterizing RJ providers, generating evidence to critically assess recent Scottish policy on RJ, whilst drawing implications with relevance for the development of RJ across Europe.

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Laura Robertson

Papers

The Local Provision of Restorative Justice in Scotland: an Exploratory Empirical Study