This is a guest blog by Marian Liebmann.
I was very interested to learn about Why me?’s Damage and Repair Project, especially the arrangements for lodging it somewhere permanently, at the British Library. I also perused the list of interviews and listened to a few excerpts. It was such a good idea and will be a resource for many years to come.
But then a reservation struck me. The very reasonable decision to include the previous 20 years (2002-2022) could imply that nothing much was going on in the restorative justice field before then. As someone who has worked in restorative justice since 1984, I am aware of many important developments from that date. I wrote to Keeva and suggested another project to cover the 20 years before the current project. Of course this would need another grant to cover the work, so while that remains a possibility, Keeva suggested I write a blog to cover some of that history. I covered much of it in detail in Chapter 2 of my book Restorative Justice: How It Works (2007), so I will just include some of the major developments here.
For me, the Restorative Justice (then called victim-offender mediation) clock started in 1974, with the Mennonite project in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Two young men who had vandalised 22 homes were given the chance of repairing the damage instead of going to prison. Soon VORPS (Victim-Offender Reconciliation Projects) were springing up in many places in Canada and the US.
The first project in the UK was started in 1983 by South Yorkshire Probation Service, soon followed by several other probation services. And in 1985 two of the largest probation victim-offender mediation services – Coventry and Leeds (and later all of West Yorkshire) took part in Home Office research on the effectiveness of victim-offender mediation. Results showed a decrease in re-offending.
Meanwhile a far-sighted and original researcher in the Home Office (Tony Marshall) saw the growth of interest, and compiled two handbooks (1984 and 1985) of community and victim-offender mediation projects. By 1985, there were 38 services. Tony also took a two-year sabbatical to set up the Forum for Initiatives in Reparation and Mediation (FIRM), later renamed Mediation UK.
This is where I came into the picture. On a holiday in Ontario, Canada, I read about the Kitchener Project. At the time I was working for Bristol Victim Support Scheme (the first victim support service in the UK). Then a friend gave me a slip of paper with details of a mediation course in London, run by two women from the US. ‘I think this is for you’ she said. She was right – all the lights went on in my head – mediation made so much sense. I had never been one for marching with flags, and here was a way of making peace that was practical and suited my outlook. Using my training, I helped to start Bristol Mediation (now Resolve West) in 1987.
Other initiatives grew. The first victim-offender mediation service in Scotland started in 1987, followed by two more. The Northampton Reparation Service produced good research results. The Milton Keynes Retail Theft Initiative used restorative approaches with shoplifters. Rochester Youth Custody Centre experimented with victim-offender groups. It was an exciting time.
I myself took part in a victim-burglar group after my leaving present from Victim Support was stolen in a burglary. It was an enlightening experience. I had described how my 6-year-old daughter was affected, and an elderly woman talked about her fear. One of the burglars said, ‘I would never burgle a house with children or old people living there!’ to which another burglar said, ‘But how would you know until you was in there?’
By this time I was working in probation and, alongside my casework, trying to set up victim-offender mediation. I invited the Leeds and Coventry Services to give talks and provide training. Then came the opportunity to work for FIRM, when Tony Marshall returned to the Home Office to pursue wider restorative justice objectives. I was director from 1991-5, then dropped to part-time projects adviser (for family reasons) from 1995-8.
During my time as director of Mediation UK, I saw community mediation grow from 10 to 100 services, but victim-offender mediation gradually declined as probation services faced cuts in funding. Good research results had little impact on the Tory government.
A talk I gave at a well-known school resulted in an introduction to Charles Pollard of Thames Valley Police fame – I introduced him to restorative justice. In 1994 Terry O’Connell visited Thames Valley Police, and the first Thames Valley Police conferencing pilot started in Aylesbury. They then introduced restorative conferencing service-wide and to other police services too.
A new phase for restorative justice started with the New Labour government. The Crime and Disorder Act in 1998 and the Youth Justice & Criminal Evidence Act in 1999 led to a revolution in youth justice, including an expectation that Youth Offending Teams would include restorative justice as part of their work. The Northern Ireland Youth Conference Service started in 2002, providing RJ as the main disposal for all young people.
However, there still seemed to be scepticism about restorative justice for adult offenders. So in 2001 the government set up a large research project, but did not publish the results until 2008. Again the results showed a decrease in re-offending, and also showed victim satisfaction and cost-effectiveness. Yet it took many more years of campaigning until the use of restorative justice for adults became accepted and services became established. And even now we see that this work is vulnerable, with cuts in funding and new restrictions being imposed.
There is much more that could be written, and I hope other initiatives will forgive me for having omitted them. But these glimpses show the early journey of RJ in the UK was creative and eventful.
