Short-term effects of restorative justice conferences on post-traumatic stress symptoms among robbery and burglary victims: a randomized controlled trial |
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Authors: | Caroline M Angel Lawrence W Sherman Heather Strang Barak Ariel Sarah Bennett Nova Inkpen Anne Keane Therese S Richmond |
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Institution: | 1. Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA 2. Jerry Lee Centre for Experimental Criminology, University of Cambridge and Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland, Cambridge, UK 6. University of Cambridge, Jerry Lee Centre of Experimental Criminology, Adjunct Associate Professor, Regulatory Institutions Network, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia 7. Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge and Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, Hebrew University, Cambridge, UK 3. Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia 4. ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate, Australian Capital Territory, Australia 5. University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
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Abstract: | Objectives To examine the impact of face-to-face restorative justice conference (RJC) meetings led by police officers between crime victims and their offenders on victims’ post-traumatic stress symptoms. Methods Two trials conducted in London randomly assigned burglary or robbery cases with consenting victims and offenders to either a face-to-face restorative justice conference (RJC) in addition to conventional justice treatment or conventional treatment without a RJC. Post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) were measured with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) within 1 month of treatment for 192 victims. We assessed the prevalence and severity of PTSS scores following treatment, using independent sample t tests and chi square statistics. We further measured the magnitude of the differences between the groups, using effect size analyses. Results Analyses show that PTSS scores are significantly lower among victims assigned to RJC in addition to criminal justice processing through the courts than to customary criminal justice processing alone. There are overall 49 % fewer victims with clinical levels of PTSS, and possible PTSD (IES-R?≥?25). Main treatment effects are significant (t?=?2.069; p?.05). Conclusions Findings suggest that restorative justice conferences reduce clinical levels of PTSS and possibly PTSD in a short-term follow-up assessment. Future research should include longer follow-up, larger and more stratified samples, and financial data to account for the cost benefit implications of RJ conferences compared to ordinary PTSS treatments. |
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