Working with women who offend: A guide for restorative justice practitioners

This brief guide for practitioners is based on the findings from the seven-month research project entitled Making restorative justice work for women who have offended. Funded by Barrow Cadbury Trust, this study aimed to explore female offenders’ access to, and experiences of, restorative justice. The ultimate objective of the project was to develop an evidence-based set of recommendations for the effective and ethical use of restorative justice with women who have offended, with a view to increasing the number of female offenders accessing restorative justice and ensuring that those women who do take part have a positive experience of it. More details of this research, and the full findings, are contained in the research report, which is available on the Restorative Justice Council’s (RJC) website. Some of the findings, however, had particular relevance for frontline practice, and this document specifically highlights these recommendations. It is intended to be helpful for practitioners who are managing restorative justice cases that involve a female perpetrator in order to foster effective and ethical working approaches