Policy & Practice: Soapbox - Restorative justice can repair thespirit of community

But in 1998 the then Home Secretary Jack Straw introduced legislation to enable restorative justice to become one of the basic principles of the new youth justice system.

Restorative justice is based on the principle that if victims of crime and local communities are involved in the process, by bringing them together with the offender to discuss the crime and what should be done to deal with it, the outcome is likely to be far more satisfactory for everyone and for the community.

This can happen through different methods. In the youth justice system the new referral order, introduced in April 2002 by the Youth Justice Board, places restorative justice at its heart. This brings offenders and victims together with trained community volunteers to draw up a contract for the young person to stick to. This contains some form of reparation proportionate to the offence. Referral orders count for almost a third of youth court orders, meaning that a significant proportion of offenders appearing in court for the first time are benefiting from the approach.