Heather Strang

Based on a lifetime of research and experience, this book deals with the concerns about crime and punishment of that most vivid of judicial creations, 'The Man or Woman on the Clapham Omnibus'. As the author explains, this human reference point for reason and good sense is likely to be far more receptive to sound explanation and argument than the media (and tabloid press in particular) might give credit. And after all, it is his or her taxes which are being routinely wasted on outmoded or discredited methods. Crime will not disappear through the application of heavy-handed sanctions. Indeed, they make matters worse. With prisons overflowing in many western countries, restorative justice offers a better and ultimately more intuitive solution. Cornwell dismantles the traditional arguments for 'locking people away' and undermines the idea that it is necessary to be 'tough on crime'. The book credits people with a higher level of intelligence. It provides them with proper answers and explanations based on sound data, copious research and an in-depth analysis of existing trends. It is a work for people who value credibility rather than politically-driven excuses with their increasingly damaging effects.

This book addresses the role of victims in our criminal justice system and the shortcomings they perceive in the way they are treated. It examines whether restorative justice can offer them more justice than they receive from the formal court-based system. Research into the shortcomings of the court-based system has identified a number of issues that victims want to address. In brief, they want a less formal process where their views count, more information about both the processing and the outcome of their case, a greater opportunity for participation in the way their case is dealt with, fairer and more respectful treatment, and emotional as well as material restoration as an outcome. Over the past three decades, the victim movement worldwide has agitated for an enhanced role for victims in criminal justice. Despite some successes, it appears that structural as well as political factors may mean that victims have won as much as they are likely to gain from formal justice. A series of randomized controlled trials in Canberra, known as the Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE), has provided an opportunity to compare rigorously the impact on victims of court-based justice with a restorative justice program known as conferencing. In these experiments, middle-range property and violent offences committed by young offenders were assigned either to court (as they would normally have been treated) or to a conference. Empirical evidence from RISE examined in this book suggests that the restorative alternative of conferencing more often than court has the capacity to give victims what they say they want in achieving meaningful victim participation and restoration, especially emotional restoration.

This text addresses the role of victims in our criminal justice system and the shortcomings they perceive in the way they are treated. It examines whether restorative justice can offer them more justice than they receive from the formal court-based system.