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Use of terms
1. "Restorative Justice" means any process that seeks primarily to address or repair the harm caused by an incident or offence.
2. "Restorative Practice" is a contested term in Scotland. Some hold that it is synonymous with 'restorative justice'. Others - particularly in education contexts - hold that this term encompasses not only restorative justice, but also a range of other processes, including mediation, conflict resolution, problem-solving, circle-time, emotional literacy, active listening, and so on. So as to avoid confusion and remain non-partisan on this issue, this document will only use the term 'restorative justice' (and its cognates) when referring to processes that seek primarily to address or repair harm.
3. "Restorative Justice Practitioner" means someone who is trained and is fully competent to deliver one or more of the restorative justice processes listed below.
4. "Case Supervisor" means someone who is able to provide advice and oversight in individual cases, bring new ideas and a fresh perspective, and check that nothing is going seriously wrong. They must be a fully competent restorative justice practitioner.
5. "Line Manager" means someone who can ensure that the restorative justice practitioner has the support and resources to work effectively, but without getting involved in how individual cases are worked. They do not need to be a restorative justice practitioner.
6. "Person harmed" means a person who has been directly harmed or affected by the actions of another person or persons.
7. "Person responsible" means a person who bears some or all of the responsibility for an action that has caused harm or affected another person or persons.
8. "Support Persons" means whoever the person harmed or person responsible have invited to support them in a restorative justice process, whose involvement or presence is accepted by all other participants. They may include parents or carers, siblings, extended family members, friends, or professionals working with either participant (social workers, school teachers, counsellors, health workers, and so on).
9. "Other Affected Persons" means any professional or community member who has been invited to participate in a restorative justice process, whose involvement or presence is accepted by all other participants, and who are able to represent the views, wishes or interests of the agency they represent or the wider community.
10. "Observers" means anyone who attends a restorative justice process without participating, and whose presence is accepted by all other participants.
11. "Participants" means the person harmed, the person responsible, support persons and, where relevant, other affected persons.
12. "Facilitator" means a person whose role is to facilitate, in a fair and impartial manner, a restorative justice process.
13. "Restorative Justice process" means any process in which relevant individuals participate together actively in the resolution of matters arising from an incident that has caused harm, generally with the help of a facilitator. Each process aims to enable the participants to explore, in a safe and structured way, (1) the facts - what happened and why, (2) the consequences - how people were harmed or affected, and (3) the future - what agreements or action plan needs to be made to meet the needs of all concerned, including the central needs of addressing the harm and preventing similar incidents. To ensure the safety and effectiveness of the process, no meeting is held without the facilitator preparing all participants in advance.
Restorative Justice processes fall into three broad categories, dependent on the kind of communication (if any) that takes place between the person harmed and the person responsible: that is direct communication, indirect communication and cases where communication is either not possible or not appropriate.
13.1. Processes involving direct communication currently include the following:
- "Restorative Justice Conferences" - also called "Restorative Conferences" and "Police Restorative Warning Conferences" - are normally led by two facilitators and are attended by the person(s) harmed, the person(s) responsible, their respective support persons, other affected persons where appropriate, and observers where agreed.
- "Face-to-Face Meetings" - also called "Restorative Meetings" - can be led by either one or two facilitators and are attended only by the person(s) harmed, the person(s) responsible and observers, where agreed.
- "Restorative Justice Circles" are normally led by two facilitators and are arranged when a number of individuals have harmed an institution, group or community, rather than caused direct harm to any individual (e.g. vandalism). They are attended by affected person(s), the person(s) responsible, and observers where agreed.
13.2. Processes involving indirect communication currently include the following:
- "Shuttle Dialogue" involves a facilitator acting as a go-between to enable the person(s) harmed and the person(s) responsible to communicate without meeting.
- "Police Restorative Warnings" are normally facilitated by one police officer and are attended by the person responsible and his or her support persons. The views and requests of any person harmed are obtained by the police officer and conveyed to those present at the Warning. If the person harmed wishes, the outcome of the Warning is fed back to them.
- "Restorative Family Group Conferences" are normally led by two facilitators and are attended by the person responsible, his or her family members and support persons, and professionals who are working with or have some involvement with the person responsible. The views and requests of any person harmed are obtained by the facilitator and conveyed to those present at the conference. The professionals present their perspective and information on resources they can provide. The 'family group' meet privately to come up with an action plan, which is then refined and finalised in the larger group. If the person harmed wishes, the outcome of the conference is fed back to them. This process is often used in the context of addressing anti-social behaviour.
13.3.Processes where no communication is possible or appropriate currently include the following:
- "Support for Persons Harmed" involve only the person harmed meeting with a facilitator to talk about their experience, short- and long-term reactions, strategies for recovery and access to other support services.
- "Victim Awareness" involves only the person responsible in one-to-one or group-work sessions with a facilitator, and may include reparative tasks.
- "Restorative Conversations" involve only the person responsible in a 5-10 minute meeting with a facilitator, normally in an institutional setting (schools, prisons, secure care, etc.), but may also be used to address anti-social behaviour or the incidents in the workplace.
14. "Restorative Justice outcome" means (a) the emotional, cognitive and relational benefits felt by the participants during and following a Restorative Justice process, such as feelings of safety, increased self-esteem, the letting go of anger, increased empathy, and so on; it also means (b) an outcome agreement or action plan reached as a result of a restorative justice process, which may include tasks and programmes aimed at meeting the individual and collective needs and responsibilities of the participants. This may include tasks that seek to address, either practically or symbolically, loss or damage experienced by the person harmed, and programmes for the person responsible that seek to address the underlying causes of their behaviour (such as anger management, substance misuse, peer pressure, and so on).
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