The effect of restorative justice practices on crime victims : a meta-analysis

When the restorative justice idea is implemented, its goals and values might not be entirely pursued clue to various factors such as penal goals, relevant social theories, cultural difference, and the values and norms of people in society. These factors might have an influence on its practices as well as its electiveness. Moreover, empirical evidence relating to the effect of restorative justice practices on crime victims is not consistent and casts doubt on its reliability and validity. These limitations snake it uncertain that restorative justice practices can restore victims. Therefore, this research study aims to investigate the actual effect by systematically analysing quantitative and qualitative findings of the existing studies conducted in various countries, compare the effect between different restorative justice practices. i. e. conferencing and mediation and the conventional criminal justice system: and investigate factors relating, to the effect. i. e., case characteristics, scheme characteristics and study characteristics. The meta-analytical method is used to analyse research findings collected from 17 restorative justice schemes implemented in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United States and United Kingdom. Results from the meta-analysis confirm that comer acing and mediation have a profound effect on the outcomes of victim satisfaction, perception of fairness, fear of revictimisation, attitude toward offenders, agreement completion, and receiving of an apology. The effect ranges from 2 to 12 times as opposed to the conventional justice system with the highest on the outcome of the receiving of an apology and the lowest on the outcome of the perception of fairness. Two outcomes are examined further and results show that restorative justice practices are likely to increase victim satisfaction and perception of fairness among victims of serious cases more so than among victims of less serious cases. In addition, they are likely to increase victim satisfaction and perception of fairness on victim's attitude toward the way their cases were handled than the case outcomes. These findings confirm the importance of the restorative process and suggest that restorative justice schemes should put more emphasis on serious cases.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo