A scheme which enables offenders to discuss the impact of their crimes with their victim has been rolled out across all of London by London Probation Trust.

 

Restorative Justice brings these two groups together in order for victims to talk about how the crime has negatively affected their life and for the offender to gain insight and victim empathy.

 

Assistant Chief Officer Andrew Hillas says: "Often the element missing within the criminal justice system is the voice of the victim. The process is weighted towards addressing the criminal and their punishment rather than the victim and their needs. Restorative Justice allows the victim to have their say."

 

Restorative Justice helps the victim to make sense of why they became a victim of crime whilst making the offender understand there is no such thing as a victimless crime and that their actions had a substantial consequence.

 

Over the last 12 months London Probation Trust has run a pilot covering ten London boroughs. This new London wide scheme will complement existing local Restorative Justice schemes which already run in parts of London. Here are the views of some who took part:

 

Victim

 

"I just wanted him to realise the huge impact it had and that he would understand this is not the way to behave. I feel better now because I think he’s less likely to do it again."

(When asked whether she would recommend Restorative Justice to other people)

"I already have. My sister was burgled and I told her how useful I’d found it to speak to people and to talk about how it had made me feel."

 

Offender #1 – this case went to a conference

 

"They got to know why it happened and that it wasn’t intended. That they hadn’t been targeted."

 

Offender #2 – went to conference

 

"I’ve been in trouble for years. I’d never looked at it from the victim’s point of view. In fact when I’ve been locked up I’ve always seen myself as the victim.

 

"Before victims had just been a name on a statement but this was for real. I just wanted them to know that it was nothing personal.

 

"It’s going to make me think twice. If that’s not deterrence I don’t know what is. It’s given me the motivation to stay on the straight and narrow."

 

A Circuit Judge when asked what she found attractive about Restorative Justice said:

 

"I found attractive that the victim actually had this opportunity to voice his/her feelings... and get some sort of resolution, an emotional resolution. And that the offender had the opportunity to seriously think about what they’d done.

 

"Not just trying to get a low sentence by saying how sorry they were. But also having heard this and seeing the impact of it to look at themselves and think what they could do to repair the damage.

 

"It felt much more a rounded conclusion as opposed to what I used to do when I sentenced people ... And also to bring the offender back into normal society rather than see them as pariah who would just do it all again."

 

Andrew Hillas, ACO, added:

 

"It has been said that the criminal justice system punishes the guilty but leaves the victim out of the equation. This allows them to ask their offender that most important of questions, ‘Why me?’ which is an important step to putting the crime behind them and to live their lives fully again."