Angela Sorsby

Situating restorative justice within criminal justice

Drawing from the evaluation of three major restorative justice schemes in England and Wales, the article considers the theoretical implications for process and outcomes of situating restorative justice for adults within criminal justice, including the allocation of roles, the balance of power, the importance of procedural justice, and the tasks of restorative justice (such as apology, rehabilitation, reparation, healing, restoration, and reintegration and its relation with social capital). Given that restorative justice events are by definition unique, because of their participative nature, the ability to make generalizations across cultures is problematic, stemming from whether participants bring normative assumptions about justice to the event.

Staging restorative justice encounters against a criminal justice backdrop A dramaturgical analysis

Drawing from an ongoing evaluation of three major restorative justice schemes in England and Wales, the article employs a dramaturgical perspective to examine a number of process issues that arise when restorative justice processes are deployed within a criminal justice context. They include the rôle and identity of restorative justice facilitators, the locations for restorative justice encounters and associated matters relating to the values of privacy, openness and accountability.

The precursors of writing: Graphic representation in preschool children

Abstract Preschool childrens representational abilities were investigated in relation to their ability to use their knowledge of graphic notation. The children were given a series of tasks requiring the graphic notation of objects. They were grouped on the basis of their responses as to whether or not they showed representational abilities and knowledge of letters/symbolic forms. Comparisons in tasks in the nursery showed the representational groups had superior metalinguistic skills and were older. Literacy tasks given in school showed superior ability for groups using letters/symbolic forms. The children came from similar backgrounds, could draw and knew some letters. Their responses showed varying constructs about the appropriate graphic notation to use in the referential tasks. We suggest some children incline to being literacy experimentalists which facilitates their acquisition of literacy. Educational implications are discussed.

Using compliance with probation supervision as an interim outcome measure in evaluating a probation initiative

This article addresses the issues involved in using compliance with probation supervision as an interim outcome measure in evaluation research. We address the complex nature of compliance and what it implies. Like much research on probation and criminal justice more generally, it was not possible to use random assignment to treatment and comparison groups in the case study we address, which evaluated the SEED training programme. We therefore compare two different data analysis methods to adjust for prior underlying differences between groups, namely regression adjustment of treatment covariates that are related to the outcome measure in the sample data and regression adjustment using propensity scores derived from a wide range of baseline variables. The propensity score method allows for control of a wider range of baseline variables, including those which do not differ significantly between the two groups.

Experiencing Supervision in England—On Licence and on Community Sentences

Appreciating service user views on their own supervision is crucial, both to aid service users in their path towards desistance and to create effective supervision. The SEED training programme for probation staff in England concentrated on one-to-one supervision and how it was being delivered. As part of the evaluation of SEED, we asked those on licence and those on community orders about their own experience of their supervision (both those whose supervisors were trained on the SEED programme and control groups). All those service users commencing supervision in selected areas of three Probation Trusts were asked if they would like to complete an anonymous questionnaire about the general running of their licence/order, what was talked about in their supervision sessions, and their views on their supervisor and supervision—and 482 service users took the opportunity to do so. Key positive elements included having a good relationship with one’s supervisor, the supervisor behaving as a role model and the supervisor motivating the service user towards desistance. Being given skills to solve problems (and encouraging service users to contact other agencies) were also important—though no supervision can tackle all the practical obstacles facing those trying to desist. We supplemented these questionnaires with in-depth interviews with a small number of service users, near the beginning of their order and then again six months or so later. We saw that, though similar positive elements emerged, both setting tasks to be done between supervision sessions and setting goals seemed to diminish over the course of the supervision. We conclude that there is a need for both supervisors and service users to think afresh near the end of supervision as to how the service user could focus on the next steps on the desistance path.