Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice or RJ for short is when the young person who has committed an offence makes amends to the victim for what they have done.  You could say it is a way of saying sorry for what you have done.

Let’s pretend you have stolen someone’s car and had an accident.  At the time you probably didn’t know who the car belonged to and you were only concerned about getting caught.

Then sometime in the future you find out from your Youth Justice Worker that the car belonged to a single mum who has a disabled child and on the day you stole the car she was supposed to take her son to hospital.

This makes you feel bad for what you have done. If you are sorry, we can do something like write a letter or say sorry face to face.

There are lots of different things you can do to say sorry including:-

• Write a letter to say sorry or explain why you did it.

• Record a voice message.

• Shuttle mediation which is when your Case Manager talks to the victim for you.

• You could also meet the victim face to face.

The options are only available if you and the victim agree and it is safe for you both to do so.

You will also have to take part in Community Reparation (Community Service).

Victim awareness work to understand how crime impacts on victims will be part of all your sessions when you are working with Youth Justice.

All this may sound confusing, but your Case Manager will answer any questions you have.

Young Person’s views (Connor)

Hi My name Is Conor and I am 15 years old I was the person that the victim worker was talking about who stole the car. I was asked by my worker why I stole the car and couldn’t recall answer the question. I suppose I was trying to show off with my mates as my uncle had shown me how to steal a car and what I needed to do.

It was fun until the Police started following us and at first it was great them giving us chase but then I started to think I am getting caught for this and going to jail.

I did get caught but I was lucky they didn’t send me to jail. I went to Court and was sent to the Youth Justice Service. Some of my mates had been there so I knew a bit about it. I was given 12 month Referral Order in court order. I thought this would mean that they would just moan as me for 12 months so didn’t want to go. My mum said I had to do my appointments and she was angry and also upset that I had robbed a car so I went as didn’t want to make her more upset.

Josh my Youth Justice Worker came to the house to see me and he was actually alright. He didn’t nag or shout or judge me. He explained what his job was and explained what I would have to do over the next twelve months on my order. He said he was here to help me and told me that if I was having any problems, he could help me sort them out. He was sound. After a few weeks of meeting him he said that he wanted to talk about the victim of my crime. I really didn’t want to and to be honest hadn’t even thought about who had owned the car. I just thought that people are insured and they will get the money back from insurance. Josh explained about the situation of the lady that I had stolen the car from. I felt proper tight. My mum is a single parent and although I am not disabled, I know she needs her car for my younger brother and sister and also to do the shopping with for my nan who is old and ill.

He asked me to think about the impact I had had on the lady and her kids and when I started to think about it I felt really bad. I sat with Josh and completed a letter of apology. Josh helped me but I wanted to let the lad know that I was really sorry as I just thought that she would get the insurance money and that would be that. I didn’t think about the other stuff like getting her son to hospital or school.

Josh told me a week later that the lady appreciated the letter and what I has written and although I still felt tight, I did hope it helped her know that I was sorry for what I had done.