Achieving restorative justice: Assessing contrition and forgiveness in the adult conference process
| Author | Andrew Goldsmith,Mark Halsey,David Bamford |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865814538433 |
| Published date | 01 December 2015 |
| Date | 01 December 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
2015, Vol. 48(4) 483–497
!The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865814538433
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Article
Achieving restorative justice:
Assessing contrition and
forgiveness in the adult
conference process
Mark Halsey, Andrew Goldsmith and
David Bamford
Flinders University, Australia
Abstract
This paper examines the key processes and outcomes of a pilot adult restorative justice
programme initiated in one Australian state. We focus particularly on the methods used to
‘capture’ expressions of contrition and forgiveness in various conference settings. In addition,
we examine the legal and procedural considerations arising from the pilot, and draw, import-
antly, on victim and offender narratives of ‘the conference experience’. In concluding, we note
the substantive potential for restorative justice to play a meaningful role in adult contexts and
briefly consider the future for initiatives of this kind.
Keywords
Adult, justice, outcomes, process, restorative
Introduction
Australia and New Zealand have been viewed around the world as pioneers in restora-
tive justice. This has been particularly so with respect to the development of conferencing
programmes for young offenders. While mediation-based schemes existed elsewhere,
New Zealand in 1989 was the first to create a statutory-based conferencing scheme.
New South Wales soon followed with a police-led non-statutory conferencing scheme
in Wagga Wagga and by the mid-1990s most Australian jurisdictions had some form of
statutory conferencing process to deal with youth crime.
In the area of adult crime, restorative justice programmes have developed much more
slowly and in a less systematic way. While New Zealand has expanded the pilot pro-
grammes that started operating around 20 years ago, in Australia expansion after com-
mencement of the first adult programme in 1994 (in the Australian Capital Territory
(ACT)) has been slow. It is only in the last decade that other Australian jurisdictions
Corresponding author:
Mark Halsey, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia.
Email: mark.halsey@flinders.edu.au
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