Supporters and restorative justice: how does the intersection between offenders, victims and the community influence perceptions of procedural justice and shaming?

Abstract

Restorative justice programmes seek to repair the harm an offence has caused by engaging the offender, the victim and the community in a discussion of the effects the incident had on others and to reach an agreement about proper restitution. Through this process perceptions of procedural justice and reintegrative shaming can be fostered as the offender can participate in this dialogue and is subject to increased social control. Although the presence of others can be beneficial to the restorative justice process, this may not always be the case. Using data from the Australian Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE), we test the influence that others present have on offender perceptions of procedural justice and shaming. We find that the quality of the relationship between offenders and these others, and their mere presence, differentially influence these outcomes. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings.

Notes

1 The frequency of respondents for relationship quality differs from relationship presence due to missing values.