Fresh attempt to give a voice to victims of crime

COULD restorative justice play a bigger role in Scotland? The practice of confronting offenders with the consequences of their crimes – often but not always by giving victims the chance to meet those who have wronged them – is not a new one. Evidence shows the method can have a useful impact on reoffending while giving victims of crime a sense of having been heard and had a direct impact within the justice system.

But experts say that services are patchy at best, with only a handful of local authorities offering RJ services, and even then in a limited range of cases, usually offering it only for minor crimes, and sometimes with young people.

I have personal experience of this – a decade ago I was invited along as a “victim” of crime by police in Lockerbie, after a gang of bored youths broke into my grandfather’s house and swiped the contents of his wine cupboard. Meeting one of those responsible as a family “representative” it was not a wholly satisfactory experience.

I was confronted by a boy of about 12, who was far from the ring-leader of the gang of mates who had spent an afternoon getting drunk in the woods as a result. Explaining our sense of violation and the fact that it had added to upset following my Grandpa’s recently death, I made him cry. He seemed devastated and I got the impression I couldn’t make him feel worse than his mother had already done. I’m not sure what it achieved bar atickintheboxofsome police paperwork.

Tonight, academics from several UK universities will launch a series of meetings to argue that restorative justice could play a much more significant role in Scotland, including with more serious offenders.

Led by Edinburgh University’s Dr Steve Kirkwood they are to look at how it is used effectively in other countries the barriers to using it more widely, such as in cases of sexual violence and revenge porn, building up to a major event in the Autumn.

One personal experience is obviously pretty limited, but for what it’s worth I support the approach. But only if victims can have an impact on the people genuinely responsible, rather than already contrite children who just happened to be there.