Community Participation in Restorative Justice: Rituals, Reintegration, and Quasi-Professionalization

Abstract

Community has long been identified as the key third party in restorative justice processes. However, when it comes to both theorizing community in restorative justice and the actual practice of community participation, conceptual clarity is lacking. A careful reading of the sociological literature on restorative justice and community point to two main reasons why we want to encourage community participation: the creation of effective ritual and offender reintegration. In this article, we present findings from an empirical study of conferencing. We explore varieties of community participation and discuss the benefits and tensions that arise when community participation becomes a formalized element of a mainstream restorative justice practice.

Keywords:

• community participation
• conferencing
• reintegration
• restorative justice

Notes

1. Indeed, we found that in cases where the victim representative was from a victims’ advocacy organization (rather than a friend or relative of the direct victim who represented their views), the discussions around harm were much more likely to focus on “community harm” rather than the experiences of the victim in the particular case. For more on this, see Rossner, Bruce, & Meher, 2013.

2. Our case census data (N = 204) reflected slightly low numbers, with at least one community member present in approximately 60% of conferences (and two or more in nearly 20%). This data does not reflect the presence of people who were identified as “victim’s representatives” at certain conferences who would often act in the capacity of an RCM.

3. It was very common for both victim representatives and community representatives to be “repeat players” (Young, 2001). Most of the representatives we interviewed had attended between 5 and 20 conferences. Although facilitators were encouraged not to use the same people too readily, they told us that once they had developed good working relationships with some local service providers they would regularly invite them to conferences.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the New South Wales Department of Justice and Attorney General (DJAG 2011/21).