Building Bridges

Across Europe, restorative justice has gained acceptance as a way of resolving disputes and mitigating the harm of crime in the community. Practitioners have also begun to coordinate restorative meetings in prisons in an e¬ffort to reduce the harms of victimisation and to encourage desistance from crime. This book provides a comprehensive evaluation of Building Bridges, a programme of restorative meetings between victims and prisoners in seven European countries. The authors first describe how participation a¬ffected victims and offenders. Then, through case studies in three countries, they frame the social-ecological contexts of the programmes, discussing the organisational and sociopolitical factors that influenced how these programmes were delivered and what is necessary for them to be sustained. Funded by the European Commission, this evaluation is essential reading for practitioners and policy-makers interested in restorative justice and prisons. It offers important insights into the potential of restorative approaches for victims and o¬ffenders and reveals the organisational and cultural obstacles to be overcome before restorative justice is a regular feature of prisons in Europe. Studies in Restorative Justice o¬ffers a unique approach to crime and victimization and a change of course from the traditional preoccupation with retribution and transgression of rules in the criminal justice system. This book series aspires to highlight the many accomplishments achieved through the use of restorative justice practices in response to crime and social conflict. It is a collection of groundbreaking theoretical essays on the principles, uses and versatility of restorative justice as well as state-of-the-art empirical research into the implementation of restorative justice practices, experiences in these programmes and evaluation of its impact on victim recovery, reo¬ffending and community capacity building. Contributors include established scholars and promising new scholars.