ACT Restorative Justice Scheme offers a safe pathway for victim-survivors: expert review

ACT Restorative Justice Scheme offers a safe pathway for victim-survivors: expert review

Today in Canberra, Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury will convene a Restorative Justice Roundtable at which he will welcome an Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) evaluation of the ACT’s restorative justice scheme applying to domestic, family and sexual violence offences.

Victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence who participated in restorative justice in the ACT felt safer, better supported and more in control because of their involvement in the scheme, the evaluation found.

Minister Rattenbury will be sharing with attendees at the Roundtable today that the ACT has led the way in the provision of a restorative justice as an alternative pathway to the traditional criminal justice system since first introducing its scheme nearly 20 years ago, and that he is committed to continual improvement of the scheme.

“Restorative justice enables individuals who have been affected by a crime to come together safely to acknowledge wrongdoing and the harm caused, and collectively resolve how to move forward,” Minister Rattenbury says.

The AIC review identifies that persons harmed were motivated to take part in restorative justice to:

• confront the person responsible in a safe setting and have their experiences heard
•  encourage the person responsible to get help or give back to the community
•  try and make sure that the person responsible would not reoffend, or
•  as an alternative to formal criminal proceedings.

The AIC report lists 10 recommendations which the ACT Government is actively considering. These recommendations address resourcing, further education, improving referral pathways and developing formal disengagement processes.

Other items that will be discussed during the Roundtable today are:

• work on possible new civil and restorative justice responses to sexual violence, in response to calls for increased accountability options in the Listen. Take action to prevent, believe and heal report
• the upcoming review of the ACT Restorative Justice Scheme (due to report in mid to late-2024)
• the proposed National Restorative Practice Conference to be held in Canberra in late November 2024.

Roundtable attendees will include the Chief Justice, Chief Magistrate, Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Victims of Crime Commissioner, academics from ANU and UC, representatives from the Canberra Restorative Community Network and stakeholders from the justice and community services sectors and First Nations community.

Restorative justice conferencing for domestic and family violence and sexual violence: Evaluation of Phase Three of the ACT Restorative Justice Scheme, is available on the Justice and Community Safety Directorate’s website:

https://www.justice.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/2315832/FINAL-REPORT_18Oct_Public-version.pdf