Blog
Power and Accountability in Restorative justice
By Ngaire Rasmussen Challenges of power and accountability in restorative justice Restorative justice (RJ) is a way of responding to harm and crime that focuses on accountability and repair rather than punishment. It offers people who have been harmed, and people who...
Linking Restorative Practice and Relationship Building in Youth Diversion Projects
By Dr Eoin O’Meara Daly and Edel Kelly, REPPP, School of Law, University of Limerick. Relationship practice in youth justice emphasises building, sustaining, and developing purposeful relationships between youth justice practitioners and young people to achieve...
How our conference on empathy shows the way forward for justice in Ireland
By Simon Keating, Restorative Justice Programme Coordinator, Le Chéile Monitoring The annual Le Chéile Restorative Justice Conference took place on 7 November at Thomond Park, Limerick. This year’s theme, Empathy in Action: The Human Side of Harm, explored how...
Restorative justice referrals and completions in 2024 (full dataset)
Restorative justice referrals and completions in 2024 (full dataset) On a mobile device? Please view the below table in landscape. Service Referrals in 2024 Completed, face-to-face V-O dialogue (A) Completed, indirect V-O dialogue (B) Completed, any V-O dialogue (A+B)...
Restorative justice referrals increase, provision expands, in 2024
The year 2024 is the sixth year for which we have collected and published data to map the use of restorative justice in Ireland’s criminal justice process. Datasets were previously published for 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 (together) and 2023. These data suggest...
Pre-sentence restorative conferencing reduces future court appearances and reoffending severity for adults – findings from Australia
Pre-sentence restorative conferencing reduces future court appearances and reoffending severity for adults - findings from Australia By Dr Stephanie Price, Research Fellow, Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia...
Legitimising restorative justice to the community – recent research from Northern Ireland
Legitimising restorative justice to the community - recent research from Northern Ireland By Dr. Allely Albert, Lecturer in Criminology, Queen's University Belfast Within Northern Ireland, community-based restorative justice organisations have become integral and...
The facilitator’s role in shaping the restorative justice narrative
The facilitator's role in shaping the restorative justice narrative By Dr. Rachel Langford Restorative justice often involves a facilitator, offender and victim who come together to discuss the impact of an offence. The role of the facilitator is to guide the process...
What should we think about when doing restorative justice with justice-involved women?
What should we think about when doing restorative justice with justice-involved women? By Dr. Linnéa Österman, Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, Gothenburg University, linnea.osterman@gu.se Owing to feminist efforts in criminology, we know more than ever...
Initial Reflections on the Probation Service’s Restorative Justice Action Plan
Initial Reflections on the Probation Service's Restorative Justice Action Plan By Dr. Ian D. Marder, Associate Professor in Criminology, Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology In May, the Probation Service published its Restorative Justice Action Plan for...
A Report on the Restorative Justice Practitioner Event, June 2024
Dorothy Keating, Molly Doherty, Elaine Healy, Sarah Treacy and Emily Sheary Restorative Justice in the Community In November 2023, a strategic meeting of restorative justice practitioners and service managers was hosted by Dr. Ian Marder at Maynooth University. One of...
Restorative justice referrals in 2023 remain below pre-pandemic levels
Dr. Ian Marder Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology This publication marks the fifth year in which we conducted a mapping exercise of the use of restorative justice in Ireland, focusing on cases being referred within the context of the criminal justice...
New Private Members’ Bill seeks to promote referrals to restorative justice
Dr. Ian Marder Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology This week, Pa Daly TD, Patricia Ryan TD and Maurice Quinlivan TD moved to introduce a Private Members’ Bill to amend the Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act 2017 to promote referrals to restorative...
ALL YOUR FACES – Review by Natalie Kemmy
ALL YOUR FACES – Review Natalie Kemmy MA in Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice, Maynooth University "ALL YOUR FACES" is a French film released in 2023, directed by Jeanne Henry and shown in Dublin in November at the Irish Film Institute as part of its French...
Restorative Practices Ireland’s National Conference on 25 November represents a milestone in Irish restorative practice development
Dr. Kieran O’Dwyer Chair, Restorative Practices Ireland On Saturday 25 November, Newbridge College will host a one-day conference, bringing together those with expertise, experience and interest in restorative practices (RP) from across Ireland. The overall themes of...
The Department of Justice commits to new restorative justice funding, but gaps will likely remain
Dr. Ian D. Marder Maynooth University, School of Law and Criminology On 8th August 2023, the Department of Justice published a new policy paper on restorative justice. This meets a commitment set out in the Justice Plan 2021 to publish policy proposals, based on the...
New data suggests fewer restorative justice referrals in 2022 than in 2019
Dr. Ian D. Marder Maynooth University, School of Law and Criminology Following our mapping exercises of restorative justice in Ireland in 2019 and 2020, we are pleased to publish a third dataset, covering the 2021 and 2022 calendar years. The new data provide a...
Guest Blog: The Economic Case for Restorative Justice
Lucy Harris - Why me? Economic Evaluation of Restorative Justice project Restorative justice (RJ) has the power to change the lives of all those affected by crime. Why me?’s ambassador stories are powerful examples of its impact on individuals. To promote...
Building understanding between Gardaí and young Black adults in Blanchardstown: a briefing on the UBUNTU Project following Phase 2 (the dialogue process)
Dr. Ian D. Marder, Assistant Professor in Criminology, Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology Katharina Kurz, Research Assistant, Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology...
An analysis of restorative justice in the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform 2022-2024
Dr. Ian D. Marder Assistant Professor in Criminology, Maynooth University On 31 August 2022, the Minister for Justice announced that the Government agreed to publish the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform 2022-2024 – the Penal Policy Review. The...
Getting excited about data on restorative justice: the need for standardisation
Dr. Kieran O’Dwyer Independent RP Trainer and Facilitator, former RJS4C Core Member Not everyone gets excited about data and definitions. But the devil is always in the detail and we need to be clear on our definitions, if we want to interpret data correctly. The...
My journey to becoming a Restorative Justice Project Officer with Le Chéile
Simon Keating Restorative Justice Project Officer, Le Chéile Mentoring My journey to becoming a Restorative Justice Project Officer with Le Chéile began back in 2012. I was studying a programme in Applied Social Studies in Social Care as a mature student at Limerick...
New research suggests rising cases, mixed picture, for restorative justice in Ireland in 2020
Dr. Ian D. Marder Maynooth University, School of Law and Criminology In June 2022, Restorative Justice: Strategies for Change (RJS4C) published a second sweep of data as part of our mapping exercise on restorative justice in Irish criminal justice. The goal was to...
A While in the Making: An Adult Restorative Justice Strategy for Northern Ireland
Lisa Higgins Reducing Offending Directorate - Department of Justice, Northern Ireland The use of restorative approaches in Northern Ireland’s youth justice system has long been a great success. Until now, however, there has been no overarching strategic approach for...