Police-Facilitated Restorative Conferencing: What the Data Show

• NCJ Number: 177563
• Author(s): Paul McCold Ph.D.
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 20 pages
• Grant Number(s): 95-IJ-CX-0042
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored

Annotation

This paper considers the potential dangers and benefits of police-facilitated conferences.

Abstract

The recent development of police officers conducting community conferences for juvenile offenders has created concern among restorative justice advocates. Evaluation of restorative policing and criminal mediation programs in the US and Canada demonstrates that police are capable of conducting such programs in a highly restorative manner. Police conferences were rated higher than mediation programs on participant satisfaction and sense of fairness. Police-operated restorative programs include direct access to cases and feature a lower operational cost than other programs. Police can become important stakeholders in the restorative justice movement. Findings suggest that concerns raised about community conferences pose a greater threat to some criminal mediation programs than to police-facilitated conferencing programs. Figures, notes, references, tables