Restorative Policing Experiment: The Bethlehem Pennsylvania Police Family Group Conferencing Project

• NCJ Number: 177564
• Author(s): Paul McCold Ph.D.; Benjamin Wachtel
• Date Published: May 1998
• Length: 147 pages
• Grant Number(s): 95-IJ-CX-0042
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description

Annotation

This report evaluates a restorative justice program operated by the police in Bethlehem, PA.

Abstract

The Bethlehem Pennsylvania Family Group Conferencing Project determined that: (1) Typical American police officers are capable of conducting conferences consistent with due process and restorative justice principles, given adequate training and supervision; (2) Conferencing did not transform police attitudes, organization culture or role perceptions, but those with the most exposure did move toward a more community-oriented, problem-solving stance; (3) Police-facilitated restorative conferences can produce conflict-reducing outcomes, most clearly in cases of interpersonal violence; (4) Victims, offenders and parents who participated accepted the police-based restorative justice; and (5) Police-facilitated restorative conferences produced participant satisfaction and perceptions of fairness at least as high as other restorative justice programs and the courts. Notes, figures, appendixes