Young people deserve more from restorative justice: #rjweek annual blog

Happy International Restorative Justice Week 2025! I have been writing annual blogs for #rjweek since 2012! I have always been critical and honest with my views, as I believe this is the best way to advance the restorative justice practice and knowledge. I have chosen for this year’s overarching theme to be “Evidence-based restorative justice: What works for young people”.

But first, let me extend my warm congratulations to all the practitioners, researchers and campaigners who kept the restorative justice flame burning for one more year. And what a year it has been with the development of our free International Fellowship of International Restorative Justice Practitioners (IFRJP) and the worldwide spreading of our International Restorative Justice Pledge. Gratitude and respect to the harmed and harming parties for being brave to opt for restorative justice.

After unprecedented rising numbers of youth offending, back in 1997, the then UK government published its White Paper “No More Excuses”! This eventually led to the passing of the Crime and Disorder Act and the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act, which introduced various statutory agencies and several community sentences aimed at (a) localising action, (b) “building on restorative justice” and (c) providing informal and formal support to children and young adults who have offended.

Unfortunately, the reform intentions remain unmaterialised. Despite creating a centralised governing and funding body - Youth Justice Board of England and Wales (YJB) - the work of youth justice service teams (YJSTs) remains difficult, inconsistent and disjointed.  Providers lack access to diversion support information, while out-of-court disposals numbers are low and continue to drop.

Simultaneously, public trust in the police is low and declining.

Disproportionality is still a major issue and as noted in the Lammy Review 2017, “The youth justice system must do more to inform local communities about the problems in their areas, so that they can contribute insights and practical support.”

Moreover, 18–25-year-olds, whose cognitive development is ongoing, are treated as adults without the support of the YJS, placing them at the brink of offending. On the other hand, a gender specific, trauma informed and whole systems approach is lacking while the 2018 Ministry of Justice Female Offender Strategy is yet to be fully operationalised locally.

It was hoped that the formalisation of restorative justice through the Crime and Disorder Act and the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act as well as the support it received from the YJB would enable youth justice services to offer it more widely and consistently to our young people. This was on the back of international evidence that restorative justice has the potential to prevent as well as rehabilitate (Bazemore & Walgrave, 1998; Crawford & Newburn, 2003).

There are 155 YJSTs across 9 regions in England and Wales. Out of these, we estimate that only one third use restorative justice, and we know that there is inconsistency in the quality and level of this provision (Banwell-Moore, 2022; Gavrielides, 2008; Wilcox & Hoyle, 2004).

The truth is that despite pockets of good practice and several case studies, there is lack of scientific evidence on the success or failure of restorative justice in the YJS (Gavrielides, 2011, 2025). In 2004, an attempt was made by the YJB, but this was incomplete and was faced with a number of challenges (Wilcox & Hoyle, 2004). Until today, there is limited publicly available information on what is delivered, how it is delivered, and with what outcomes. Evidence on its impact for children and young people in the UK also remains scarce (Gavrielides, 2007b, 2011a; Sherman & Strang, 2007).

Children and young people do not set off their life journey to offend and be bad. Putting my hat as a criminologist aside, as a dad of a teenager, I see a young man full of emotions, questions, anger and frustration. Feelings of being lost, isolated, questions of identity and belonging. At the same time, I see him having the most amazing dreams to fix what we wise adults are passing on. I see resilience and empathy, kindness and the kind of humanity that we, in our wise years, have forgotten about.

So, how do we tap into these dreams and their potentials to make our world a better place? What can restorative justice do to provide alternatives that might work better that punishment them through imprisonment, stigmatization and shame?

People often ask me what does food banks, sports and art workshops have to do with restorative justice? Why are you delivering all these services from your community centre and what do they have to with RJ4All and #rjweek?

The answer is simple. Restorative justice is an ethos, not punishment. This ethos places our humanity at the centre of the solution and through this process helps us understand that to stop and prevent harm, we must see it in a holistic way. By addressing food insecurity, health inequality and bringing communities together, we build resilience and strengthen the social fabric. Restorative justice is more than just its practices.

So, how about the evidence on its practices with young people?

The Restorative Justice for All International Institute (RJ4All)  was fortunate to be selected by the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) and supported by the YJB to address the evidence gap in RJ’s effectiveness. With Coram as our independent evaluation partner, our new programme, “Restorative Justice – the evidence: A pilot for the youth justice system of England and Wales” aims to co-design a Shared Practice Model in partnership with YJSTs across England and Wales.

Subsequently, we will support 10 of these teams to implement the model through training, one-to-one and group advice, workshops and networking. While doing so, our evaluation partner will be carrying out Randomized Control Trials with restorative justice cases delivered by these teams to assess outcomes that extend beyond recidivism including victim satisfaction and involvement, empathy and community repair.

It was important that before we launch the trials that a shared and agreed practice is co-designed while bearing in mind the specificities of each location and team. This involves identifying and defining the core components of restorative justice delivery, the minimum common elements that each service will incorporate into their practice. By grounding the model in practitioner expertise and aligning it with the needs of both victims and young people who have offended, the co-design process ensured the model is both practical and evidence-informed.

The programme is in its very early stages. It has received the warm support of many YJSTs and their keen interest to participate. Often, I have been critical of top-down approaches to delivering restorative justice, and I have been skeptical of controlled methods and standardized models. It is indeed rather unusual to have a unique partnership of cross-sector, multi-agency organisations working under the same principles and with a shared vision.

If you are reading this and have passion for youth justice, whether you are a sceptic, a supporter or just a newcomer to restorative justice, I extend our invitation to join and learn more about the programme.  It has been a long time since I was able to find hope in the system and believe that we have a chance to do things better for our children, for my son, for your daughter. I share this hope with you on #rjweek2025.