Restorative Justice Approaches to Organised Crime Groups

A Staff Exchange investigated the views of stakeholders and undertook a case study to assess the feasibility of using restorative justice approaches with OCGs.

Feasibility Report

The Feasibility of Undertaking Restorative Approaches with Serious and Organised Crime Offending

Dr Nikki D’Souza (then an officer with Durham Constabulary) and Dr Xavier L’Hoiry (University of Sheffield) interviewed 16 imprisoned offenders, 13 victims of organised crime, 15 experts in restorative approaches, and analysed local Force polices on restorative approaches and intelligence on local OCGs. 

The research found willingness and support across all stakeholder groups for the use of restorative approaches involving organised crime offenders and victims, albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm and in the case of offenders, varying degrees of acknowledgment of the impact of their offending.

Key Findings 

There is little evidence of RA being used in the context of organised crime offending to date.

All stakeholder groups consulted in this research expressed some degree of enthusiasm and willingness for the prospect of pursuing RA in relation to organised crime offending.

Organised crime offenders were overwhelmingly enthusiastic and provided a wide range of reasons for their willingness to participate in RA. However, some offenders showed a lack of understanding of the harm and victimisation caused by their offences, raising questions as to their immediate suitability for RA processes.

Victims of organised crime offending were broadly sceptical and resistant to the prospect of undertaking RA with organised crime offenders for a number of reasons. However, despite this scepticism, some victims were nevertheless open to the prospect of entering into RA processes with organised crime offenders.

RA practitioners and experts showed high levels of enthusiasm for the proposal of extending the use of RA to new and innovative contexts including organised crime activity. Before such extensions can be undertaken however, practitioners and experts emphasised the importance of tailored training, guidance and safeguarding to ensure that the complex nature of organised crime offending and victimisation is recognised.

Research was conducted by Dr Nikki D’Souza (then an officer with Durham Constabulary) and Dr Xavier L’Hoiry (Sheffield University). 

Report date: July 2017.

Case Study

Applying a Restorative Approach to Serious and Organised Crime – Can it be done safely in practice?

This study applies the theory of restorative approaches (RA) to a single case study, explores the issues identified, and makes recommendations for development of the practice.

This work resulted in excellent victim satisfaction and self-reported benefits for the participating offender, signalling the need for the model to be developed with bespoke risk assessment tools via further case studies including for non-fraud cases to test the applicability to other types of serious and organised criminality. This challenges prevailing assumptions that RA or is not applicable to serious and organised crime (SOC), and should encourage police and partner agencies’ to develop the practice so they can offer victims the choice to have a restorative intervention in line with legislative requirements.

Key Findings

The key findings have been edited for brevity; please see the report for the full key findings. 

• There is no evidence of Restorative Approaches (RA) being used in the context of serious and organised crime (SOC) offending in the literature review.
• The safety of the participating offender from other from other organised crime group (OCG) members should be considered alongside victim safety and risks to the community. There needs to be a recognition of the offender as a victim within the SOC context due to the way that offenders are recruited into OCGs.
• Participants cannot be prevented from talking online about their experience with a restorative conference, so we recommend adaptations to established process to account for this.
• Risk mitigation plans for intelligence gaps should be created by police and partner agencies when planning a restorative conference.
• Creativity, corporate motivation, time, resources and skilled staff are required to undertake RA in this context successfully, which raises issues in relation to upscaling the initiative.

Research was conducted by Dr Nikki D’Souza (then an officer with Durham Constabulary) and Dr Xavier L’Hoiry (Sheffield University). 

Report date: January 2019.