Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention Intro Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention Presenting a theoretical exploration, an empirical analysis and the policy perspective DIPARTIMENTO GIUSTIZIA MINORILE UFFICIO IV DEL CAPO DIPARTIMENTO Studi, ricerche e attività internazionali Final report of the European project ‘Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention’ Coordinated by Department of Juvenile Justice (Italian Ministry of Justice) In partnership with European Forum for Restorative Justice (Belgium) Psychoanalytic Institute for Social Research (Italy) In cooperation with University of Leeds (UK) Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) April 2010 JPEN 2008 With financial support of the European Commission - Directorate-General Justice, Freedom and Security i Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention Intro Foreword The ‘Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention’ project was developed in order to examine the European scenario on the relationship between Restorative Justice (RJ) and Crime Prevention (CP) - given the implied distinction to be drawn between these two areas in both theoretical and practical terms. In Italy, the lack of full-fledged scientific analyses concerning criminal policies has often resulted into leaving the management and control of crime entirely to the lawmaker's initiative by relying on typical criminal law tools. At the same time, alternative dispute resolution is not regarded as an effective tool from all quarters to provide alternative conflict management options. Accordingly, it is difficult to pinpoint reference provisions and/or policies focused on fostering RJ and CP in Italy's legal system - just like in many other European countries. These two areas would appear to be separate, even though strategies can be descried that are aimed at fostering new approaches to coping with what is alien. Restorative Justice is often considered to be a set of practices that ‘put emphasis’ on victims, who become the focus of the response to crime; at the same time, such practices seek to ensure that the offender undertakes responsibility for the consequences of his or her conduct. However, European research into RJ practices has already shown that these practices can produce preventive effects. Still, practitioners and scholars do not agree in regarding RJ as a CP policy for all intents and purposes; additionally, there are two different views as to whether RJ practices that go beyond exclusively judicial practices are also to be included into the scope of Crime Prevention. The Italian Juvenile Justice Department, which is the lead partner in the ‘Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention’ project, and in particular the Office for Studies, Researches and International Activities have been working hard over the years to foster the culture of Restorative Justice. Alongside this research project, many international projects and workshops - such as the ‘Progetto Incontro’, or the Restorative Juvenile Justice in Europe workshop, the ‘Tools in Network’ project, etc. – testify to the ever-increasing pace of juvenile justice developments in our country, which is catching up with the European scene. We hope that this report will manage to "shed light" both on terminology and on practices in a frontier area, thus becoming a driving force to better determine measures and their objectives. Isabella Mastropasqua (Juvenile Justice Department, Italy) i Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention Intro Acknowledgements Having concluded the ‘Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention’ project, the Italian Juvenile Justice Department cannot but express its deepest gratitude via this Research Report first and foremost to all project partners – the Istituto Psicoanalitico per le Ricerche Sociali and the European Forum for Restorative Justice – for their excellent co-operation in achieving our shared objectives; secondly, we wish to thank most heartily all those individuals and institutions (academia members, associations, civil servants, judges and prosecutors, mediators, NGOs, welfare workers, researchers, translators and interpreters) that provided us with their scientific, logistical and technical-operational help in implementing this project – which would have been a daunting task without their support. For the institutional support Mr. Bruno Brattoli, Head of the Juvenile Justice Department For the scientific and logistical support Mr. Ivo Aertsen and Ms. Inge Vanfraechem, Catholic University of Leuven Mr. Adam Crawford, University of Leeds For the involvement in the Final Conference The Juvenile Justice Centres, the Services and practitioners of the Italian Juvenile Justice Department The Italian Centres for Mediation For their contribution towards implementing the Project Harjit Athwal (UK), Lieve Balcaen (Belgium), Jaume Martín Barberan (Spain), John Blad (The Netherlands), Benjamin Blaise (Belgium), Thierry Bonfanti (Italy), Dieter Burssens (Belgium), Beniamino Calabrese (Italy), Vittorio Campus (Italy), Malena Carlstedt (Sweden), Antonio Caselli (Italy), Dobrinka Chankova (Bulgaria), Maria Paola Chirone (Italy), Maria Fátima Coelho (Portugal), Maria Rosaria Creton (Italy), Beata Czrnecka-Dzialuk (Poland), Stefan Daniel (Germany), Johan Deklerck (Belgium), Jacques Faget (France), J. Farsedakis (Greece), Ireen Friedrich (Austria), Paolo Giulini (Italy), Annemie Goovaerts (Belgium), Mesko Gorazd (Slovenia), Ilona Görgényi (Hungary), Jack R. Greene (USA), Diarmuid Griffin (Ireland), Dalina Groza (Romania), Melinda Gyökös (Hungary), Toby Hamilton (UK), Arthur Hartmann (Germany), Vincenzo Indorato (Italy), Maritha Jacobsson (Sweden), Alex Jary (UK), Ben Judah (UK), Juha Kääriäinen (Finland), Leo Keidel (Germany), Aarne Kinnunen (Finland), Michael Königshofer (Austria), Katrien Lauwaert (Belgium), Anu Leps (Estonia), Eleonore Lind (Sweden), Karin Sten Madsen (Denmark), Delia Manferoce (Italy), Karolien Mariën (Belgium), Bernd- Dieter Meier (Germany), Maurizio Millo (Italy), Sónia Maria Moreira Costa dos Santos Reis (Portugal), Vesna Nikolic-Ristanovic (Serbia), David O'Donovan (Ireland), Nicholas Poyntz (UK), Duncan Prime (UK), Sean Redmond (Ireland), Luigi Regoliosi (Italy), An Raes (Belgium), Rosalba Romano (Italy), Gustavo Sergio (Italy), Mario Serio (Italy), Michelle Shannon (Ireland), Daniela Stábová (Slovakia), Maria Tavolaro (Italy), Andreja Tratnik (Slovenia), Leo Van Garsse (Belgium), Bie Vanseveren (Belgium), Edit Velez (Hungary), Stefaan Viaene (Belgium), Maria Vitulano (Italy), Renata Anna Wiah (Poland), Christopher Williams (UK), Annemieke Wolthuis (The Netherlands), and anyone who we have forgotten to mention. Thank you! ii Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention Intro Project overview: objectives and methods The ‘Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention’ Project (Project JLS/2007/ISEC/FPA/C1-048 30-CE- 0198574/00-29) is part of the ‘Fight against Crime’ European Programme by the Directorate-General ‘Freedom, Security and Justice’; it was funded by the European Commission. As already pointed out, the main objective of this project consisted in investigating the existing and/or potential relationships between Restorative Justice and Crime prevention at European level - from both a practical and theoretical viewpoint as well as in terms of action models. Major importance was attached throughout the project to the ethical and social issues related to the scenarios considered. All the activities envisaged in the project were carried out and implemented by the trans-national research team made up of members from each partner organization. The partnership for this project included the Juvenile Justice Department (Italy), which was the lead organization; the Psycho-Analytical Institute for Social Researches (Italy); and the European Forum for Restorative Justice at the Leuven University (Belgium). Leeds University in the UK provided co- operation and technical support in the research phase; additionally, the support from Leuven's Catholic University could also be relied upon. As for the methodology applied to this project, it was decided that the first step would consist in investigating the different theoretical contexts applying to Restorative Justice in Europe - starting from the wide-ranging gamut of analyses and researches into the relationships between Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention. The first trans-national meeting held in Rome in September 2008 afforded partners an opportunity to meet and build up the co-ordination group as well as highlighting the main areas of the desk research phase - which were determined as follows: - Identifying possible connecting factors between theoretical and practical issues concerning Restorative Justice and Crime Prevention models; - Assessing the potential for including Restorative Justice into Crime Prevention policies in EU Member States; - Collecting studies and researches on the process and effects of Restorative Justice, with particular regard to its impact on recidivism and Crime Prevention. The European Forum for Restorative Justice was entrusted with collecting the available researches, materials, documents and bibliographic references on the issues addressed in the project, by actively co- operating with the research team; an integrated, comparative approach was applied in order to gather all possible inputs in terms of researches, ideas and conceptual approaches. Based on the initial draft produced in this manner and following the initial exchanges of scientific opinions among the members of the technical committee, a second co-ordination meeting was held at the Leuven