History and Critique of Restorative Justice Policy and Practice in the Queensland Criminal Justice System ...

• Main Author: Price, Stephanie
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland 2023
• Subjects: restorative justice; conferencing; Queensland; history; First Nations; policy; process evaluation; return-to-court; Criminology; FOS: Law
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25907/00773; https://research.usc.edu.au/esploro/outputs/doctoral/99744998702621

The historical development, implementation and outcomes of restorative justice policy and practice in the Queensland criminal justice system are explored in this thesis. Restorative justice is a process that provides an opportunity for all those affected by a crime to meet to discuss the offence, to determine a means to repair the harms it created, while helping to reintegrate the offender back into the community. Both Australian and international literature has shown that these programs can produce significant benefits to victims, offenders, and their communities, including high levels of participant satisfaction, reductions in recidivism and increased participant support networks (e.g., Strang et al., 2013; Suzuki & Yuan, 2021; Wong et al., 2016). As such, these programs have received substantial interest, with a considerable body of academic research and critical debate ensuing. However, much of this work has related to international restorative justice programs, with a significant focus on outcomes ... : To address these gaps in knowledge, a case study methodology was used to answer three research questions: (1) How has restorative justice been implemented in Queensland, and why? (2) How is restorative justice currently being applied? and (3) How could restorative justice practice in Queensland be improved to optimise benefits for all stakeholders? The findings were used to identify transferrable lessons for similar jurisdictions where restorative justice programs have also been used in response to crime (e.g., New Zealand; see Weatherburn & Macadam, 2013) and contribute to existing knowledge of restorative justice more broadly. ...