Most of RJ practices implemented in Europe are principally victim-oriented. Hence, many RJ related researches focus on RJ’s potential to fulfill victims’ needs. But RJ is an approach to crime that brings together the victim and the offender focusing on both the victim’s and the offender’s side and needs. Therefore, we should also address the question of the impact of RJ practices to offenders. The authors of the article have academic and empirical experience on offenders issues and RJ. Bart is a Belgian Board member of the EFRJ, mediator and Professor of social work and security at the Avans University of Applied Studies. For his doctoral research in Criminology he did an ethnographic research on RJ practices in a Belgian maximum security prison. Joanna is a British criminologist, forensic psychologist, and academic, specializing in RJ and Victimology. She has been engaged in research for the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) on what is quality in probation supervision and on how offenders stop committing offenses (desistance). In this article they explore the potential of RJ regarding offenders’ moral and social rehabilitation from a broad perspective. Special focus will be on affenders’ desistance from crime.

Article:

• CLAES Bart, SHAPLAND Joanna (2017) “Desistance from crime and restorative justice”, Restorative Justice, 4 (3). pp. 302-322

Restorative Justice (RJ) awareness campaign launched  by

the  Center for the Study of Crime (CESC)

in collaboration with

Katerina Soulou

PhD candidate Aix-Marseille University

European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) Board member

Athens, 17-24 November 2019