Restorative justice is a process for resolving crime that focuses on redressing the harm done to victims, while holding offenders to account. In the New Zealand criminal justice system, restorative justice is primarily delivered through a meeting between the victim and the offender called a restorative justice conference. Currently, the Ministry of Justice provides funding for about 1,500 conferences per year.
The main objective of this study is to determine whether offenders who participated in restorative justice conferences in both 2008 and 2009 had a reduced rate of reoffending compared with a similar group of offenders who did not take part in restorative justice conferences.
Methodology
The study focused on offenders who had participated in a police or court-referred restorative justice conference (conferenced offenders), to assess the impact on reoffending compared to matched offenders who went through the police diversion or court process. Data from 2008 and 2009 was provided by up to 12 restorative justice providers nationally (from a total of 26).
Rigorous data verification, statistical modelling and matching processes were used. Conferenced offenders were compared with:
- offenders referred for restorative justice but who did not receive a restorative justice conference as the victim declined or the case was otherwise considered unsuitable (non-conferenced);
- other offenders meeting the restorative justice eligibility criteria who were not referred (other eligible); and
- a matched comparison group of offenders (a sub-set of the other eligible offenders, selected to match the demographic and offending characteristics of those who completed a restorative justice conference).
Offenders in the study included those who:
- had been charged with an imprisonable offence involving a victim;
- were aged 17 or over;
- entered a guilty plea;
- did not receive a custodial sentence; and
- were charged in a district court from which referrals were received by restorative justice providers included in the study.
This study analysed data for offenders who had a final court hearing date occurring between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2009. A much smaller sample size in 2008, covering fewer restorative justice providers, means more weight should be placed on the results from 2009.
The primary measure of reoffending used in the report was whether an offender who had been through a restorative justice conference reoffended over the following 12-month period for the 2009 cohort, and over the following 12-month and 24-month period for the 2008 cohort. Three other measures of reoffending were also used: frequency of reoffending; seriousness of reoffending1; and subsequent imprisonment rates.
Whether a result between conferenced and matched offenders is statistically significant or not depends on the size and scale of difference between the two rates, and the sample size of the two groups.
Key Results
The key finding in this report is that in 2009 offenders who participated in restorative justice conferences were 20 percent less likely to re-offend in the following 12 months than comparable offenders.
In addition, the frequency of reoffending for those conferenced offenders that did reoffend was less than for comparable offenders. The number of conferenced offenders imprisoned for offending following a restorative justice conference was also reduced.
All of these findings combine to suggest that restorative justice has contributed to enabling some offenders change their offending behaviour, and to reducing victimisation and costs to the Justice Sector.