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\"This monograph considers the correlation between the relative success of retributive penal policies in English-speaking liberal democracies since the 1970s, and the practical evidence of increasingly excessive reliance on the penal state in those jurisdictions. It sets out three key arguments. Firstly, that increasingly excessive conditions in England and Wales over the last three decades represent a failure of retributive theory. Secondly, that the penal minimalist cause cannot do without retributive proportionality, at least in comparison to the limiting principles espoused by rehabilitation, restorative justice, and penal abolitionism. Thirdly that, accordingly, another retributivism is necessary if we are to confront penal excess. Hayes offers a sketch of this new approach, 'late retributivism', as both a theory of punishment and of minimalist political strategy, within a democratic society. Centrally, criminal punishment is approached as both a political act and a policy choice. Consequently, penal theorists must take account of contemporary political contexts in designing and advocating for their theories. Although Hayes's inquiry focuses primarily on England and Wales, its models of retributivism and of academic contribution to democratic penal policy-making are relevant to other jurisdictions, too\"-- Provided by publisher.

Restorative justice has made significant progress in recent years and now plays an increasingly important role in and alongside the criminal justice systems of a number of countries in different parts of the world. In many cases, however, successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses have not been evaluated sufficiently systematically and comprehensively, and it has been difficult to gain an accurate picture of its implementation and the lessons to be drawn from this. Restorative Justice in Practice addresses this need, analyzing the results of the implementation of three restorative justice schemes in England and Wales in the largest and most complete trial of restorative justice with adult offenders worldwide. It aims to bring out the practicalities of setting up and running restorative justice schemes in connection with criminal justice, the costs of doing so and the key professional and ethical issues involved. At the same time the book situates these findings within the growing international academic and policy debates about restorative justice, addressing a number of key issues for criminal justice and penology, including: how far victim expectations of justice are and can be met by restorative justice aligned with criminal justice whether ‘community’ is involved in restorative justice for adult offenders and how this relates to social capital how far restorative justice events relate to processes of desistance (giving up crime), promote reductions in reoffending and link to resettlement what stages of criminal justice may be most suitable for restorative justice and how this relates to victim and offender needs the usefulness of conferencing and mediation as forms of restorative justice with adults. Restorative Justice in Practice will be essential reading for both students and practitioners, and a key contribution to the restorative justice debate. \"This seven year study is the most important research evidence on restorative justice (RJ) in this country. The work challenges some of the myths around restorative justice – for example the finding that 70% of victims of serious crimes chose to meet the offender when this was offered to them, challenges the prevailing view that RJ is only appropriate for less serious crime. Her research has confirmed earlier findings of the strong victim benefits from restorative justice; and provided new evidence for the impact of RJ in reducing re-offending, leading to cost-savings across Criminal Justice. This book will provide essential reading for policy makers interested in evidence-based policy; for criminal justice agencies seeking to give victims a stronger voice in justice; and includes a wealth of information for practitioners who want to know 'what works' and base their restorative practice on the evidence.\" – Lizzie Nelson, Director, Restorative Justice Council 'This book provides a state-of-the-art analysis of restorative justice, conferences, and mediation for serious cases and adult offenders. 　It is essential reading for policymakers and practitioners who wish to develop restorative justice schemes that work alongside conventional criminal justice. 　Its comprehensive and measured analysis is a welcome addition to the research literature. 　This is a scholarly treatment of restorative justice for the real world and ways to move it from the margins to the mainstream of criminal justice.' – Kathleen Daly, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Australia 'The authors promised to provide \"essential reading\" for students and practioners. They have met that promise in regard to both their description of applications of RJ in the adult justice system (pre-trial, during sentencing formulation, and post sentencing) and in their many probing questions regarding RJ in general.'　 -Eric Assur, in the Restorative Justice Online blog, 2 March 2012 Joanna Shapland is Professor of Criminal Justice in the School of Law, University of Sheffield, and Head of the School of Law; Gwen Robinson is Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice in the School of Law at the University of Sheffield; Angela Sorsby is a freelance criminologist specialising in data analysis and statistics. 1. Setting the Scene 2. Setting the Schemes in Context: A Review of the Aims, Histories and Results of Restorative Justice 3. Setting Up and Running Restorative Justice Schemes 4. Accountability, Regulation and Risk Experiencing Restorative Justice 5. Approaching Restorative Justice 6. Through a Different Lens: Examining Restorative Justice Using Case Studies 7. During Restorative Justice Events Looking Back at Restorative Justice: What Do People Think it Achieved? 8. The Victims’ View: Satisfaction and Closure 9. Outcome Agreements and their Progress 10. The Offenders’ View: Reoffending and the Road to Desistance 11. Restorative Justice: Lessons from Practice

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) have been identified as having an important role in improving the health and wellbeing of individuals in prison; however, a lack of information exists on how to strengthen this role. This paper explores the experiences of ACCHO staff in primary health care to individuals inside or leaving prison. Nineteen staff from four ACCHOs were interviewed. ACCHO selection was informed by proximity to prisons, town size and/or Local Government Area offending rates. Thematic analysis of the interviews was undertaken. While most ACCHOs had delivered post‐release programs, primary health care delivery to prisoners was limited. Three themes emerged: i) a lack of access to prisoners; ii) limited funding to provide services to prisoners; and iii) the need for a team approach to primary health care delivery. A holistic model of care underpinned by a reliable funding model (including access to certain Medicare items) and consistent access to prisoners could strengthen ACCHOs’ role in primary health care delivery to people inside or leaving prison. ACCHOs have an important role to play in the delivery of primary health care to prisoners. Existing models of care for prisoners should be examined to explore how this can occur.

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the relationship between psychology, moral reasoning theory and offending behaviour. It sets out the theory and research which has been carried out in the field, and examines the ways in which this knowledge has been used in practice to inform treatment programmes for offenders. This book pays particular attention to Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning, providing a link between this theory and developmental psychology, along with a review of more recent critiques of this theory and an analysis of the difficulties of accurately assessing moral reasoning. The book goes on to assess moral reasoning as an explanation of offending behaviour, looking at how moral reasoning interacts with child rearing and family factors, social factors and social cognition. Offending is therefore presented as a complex phenomenon caused by an interaction of variables that are internal and external to the individual. The book concludes with a consideration of how knowledge and research in the area of moral reasoning and offending has been used in practice to inform treatment programmes for offenders, looking at a variety of different settings (prison, residential settings, and in the community).

A wide variety of problem-solving courts have been developed in the United States over the past two decades and are now being adopted in countries around the world. These innovative courts--including drug courts, community courts, domestic violence courts, and mental health courts--do not simply adjudicate offenders. Rather, they attempt to solve the problems underlying such criminal behaviors as petty theft, prostitution, and drug offenses. Legal Accents, Legal Borrowing is a study of the international problem-solving court movement and the first comparative analysis of the development of these courts in the United States and the other countries where the movement is most advanced: England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and Australia.

The legitimacy and performance of the traditional criminal justice system is the subject of intense scrutiny as the world economic crisis continues to put pressure on governments to cut the costs of the criminal justice system. This volume brings together the leading work on restorative justice to achieve two objectives: to construct a comprehensive and up-to-date conceptual framework for restorative justice suitable even for newcomers; and to challenge the barriers of restorative justice in the hope of taking its theory and practice a step further. The selected articles start by answering some fundamental questions about restorative justice regarding its historical and philosophical origins, and challenge the concept by bringing into the debate the human rights and equality discourses. Also included is material based on empirical testing of restorative justice claims especially those impacting on reoffending rates, victim satisfaction and reintegration. The volume concludes with a critique of restorative justice as well as with analytical thinking that aims to push its barriers. It is hoped that the investigations offered by this volume not only offer hope for a better system for abolitionists and reformists, but also new and convincing evidence to persuade the sceptics in the debate over restorative justice. Theo Gavrielides is an international expert in criminal justice and human rights theory, policy and practice. His current research is at the cutting edge of restorative justice and juvenile justice. He is an advisor to governments and international bodies, and is a pioneer of user-led methods of research, policy and legislative reform. He is the founder and Director of the international think-tank Independent Academic Research Studies (IARS), and the founder and co-Director of the Restorative Justice for All international institute. He is also a Visiting Professor in Canadian and British universities.

The suspended sentence has been described as the 'Sword of Damocles' and praised as a means of exploiting the deterrent effects of prison while avoiding some of its human and financial costs. The deterrent value of suspended sentences is said to derive from the fact that the consequences of reoffending during the period of a suspended sentence are 'known and certain', whereas those attending a breach of probation are not. Past research, however, has shown that suspended sentences do little to reduce the use of imprisonment and, in some cases, actually increase it. Studies purporting to show the deterrent effectiveness of suspended sentences, on the other hand, have been few in number and methodologically weak. In this article, we use propensity matching to compare the effect of suspended sentences on recidivism to that of supervised bonds. We find no difference in rates of reconviction following the imposition of these sanctions. The implications of this finding for the UK system of suspended sentences are discussed.

A number of jurisdictions, including England and Wales, have recently experienced rising prison populations and this has renewed the search for fresh alternatives to incarceration. Following the recommendations of the Home Office Sentencing Review of 2001, the Criminal Justice Bill 2002 contains a suspended term of imprisonment, which is a form of conditional sentence for England and Wales. Although conditional sentences of various kinds exist in many Western nations, the Canadian experience carries the most lessons for other jurisdictions. A conditional sentence of imprisonment designed to replace actual terms of custody was introduced in 1996. The offender is sentenced to a term of imprisonment, but discharges the sentence while living in the community, under supervision. As long as they comply with a number of conditions, offenders serving conditional sentences will not actually spend any time in a correctional institution. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of this sanction to date. Results indicate that the conditional sentence has occasioned a significant drop in the number of admissions to custody, and with only a minor degree of net widening. The paper concludes by drawing some general conclusions from the Canadian experience with this alternative to imprisonment.

The 1991 Criminal Justice Act in England and Wales introduced, for those sentenced to one to four years, the concept of a sentence served half in prison and half in the community, subject to supervision and the possibility of recall. This arrangement is known as Automatic Conditional Release. This paper reports some findings from a research project evaluating its first two years of operation. It discusses the contradictory forces and ideas which led to the introduction of the scheme and shows how these are reflected in problems of implementation. Accounts are given of the reactions of prisoners and licensees, and the attempts of practitioners to adapt traditional concepts of 'throughcare' to the requirements of a new form of supervision. It is concluded that compulsory post-release supervision 'works' in the sense that licensees tend to complete it successfully and to regard it as helpful, but that it is seriously flawed in practice by lack of clarity about its purpose and difficulty in allocating appropriate resources.