McVicar’s rejection of restorative justice a slap in the face for victims

“Garth McVicar’s view that victims shouldn’t be advised that restorative justice conferencing is an available option, is a slap in the face for those victims who have taken up that option, and benefited from the experience,” says Kim Workman, of Rethinking Crime and Punishment.” He was commenting on Garth McVicar’s rejection of the Hon Simon Power’s intention to make restorative justice more widely available to victims.

“No advocate, whether supporting victims, offenders or both, has the moral right to actively deny people an option which can reduce victims’ unresolved anger and anxiety and increase their satisfaction with the justice process.”

“His active discouragement of restorative justice over the years, may be one of the reasons why there are so many long term traumatised victims sitting under the Sensible Sentencing umbrella.”

“Prison Fellowship, a major provider of post-sentence restorative justice services, gets 150 requests a year for conferences, and a good number of those come from victims. About a third of those end up in a conference. The others are discontinued because either the victim or the offender don’t wish to take up the option. No one is forced to into it.”

“All the proposed reform does is ensure that the restorative justice option is placed before victims. In the past, the decision whether or not to make the victim aware of that option, lay in the hands of judicial officers, and others involved in the case. The power of choice now transfers to the victim.

“Garth believes that restorative justice “doesn’t work”; but has no evidence to back up that view. In fact, the evidence both in New Zealand and overseas, shows that restorative justice does reduce reoffending, and increases victim satisfaction in the judicial process.”

“The emotional and psychological impact of crime can last far beyond the incident itself, and in some cases affects victims’ lives for years. A series of groundbreaking studies has shown, however, that restorative justice conferences can mitigate those effects and help victims heal and move forward more quickly. It seems to me that we need to do more research in New Zealand, on the impact of restorative justice on victims, rather than the current focus on offenders.”

“Conferences are not right for everyone, and no one should be pressured to participate, or not participate. But the recent research gives victims a lot of reassurance of the likely effect. It confirms what we know from experience, - that it is likely to be something they will be glad they have done.”

ends

© Scoop Media