Restorative policing for the 21st century: Historical lessons for future practice

Clamp, Kerry

Abstract

Restorative policing has experienced somewhat of a tumultuous journey within the international criminal justice landscape. The practice first emerged in Wagga Wagga, Australia in the early 1990s where its architects drew inspiration from both the New Zealand conferencing system and John Braithwaite’s theory of reintegrative shaming. This chapter argues that the inspiring results of that pilot project have not been replicated elsewhere and proceeds to interrogate the reasons for this. The chapter contributes to the Handbook’s objectives by making two key arguments. The first is that the operationalisation of restorative justice within contemporary policing environments, with the pressures of austerity and public accountability, naturally lends itself to quantity over quality resolutions. The second is that both the champions and evaluators of contemporary restorative policing schemes have prioritised learning from failure over success. If we return to the origins of the restorative policing model, we learn that good practice takes time, investment and community-police partnerships. Only once these internal resources are secured can true restorative policing that benefits the community take place. Limits to that realisation come from surprising quarters and raise some uncomfortable questions about the state of the field, if restorative policing was ‘allowed’ to work.

Citation

Clamp, K. (2018). Restorative policing for the 21st century: Historical lessons for future practice. In T. Gavrielides (Ed.), Routledge International Handbook of Restorative Justice. Routledge

• Acceptance Date: Feb 5, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jul 27, 2018
• Publication Date: Jul 26, 2018
• Deposit Date: Feb 22, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 27, 2020
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: Routledge International Handbook of Restorative Justice
• Chapter Number: 12
• ISBN: 9781472480705
• Keywords: restorative justice, restorative policing, conferencing, Wagga Wagga
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/909948
• Publisher URL: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-International-Handbook-of-Restorative-Justice/Gavrielides/p/book/9781472480705
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Routledge International Handbook of Restorative Justice on July 26 2018, available online: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-International-Handbook-of-Restorative-Justice/Gavrielides/p/book/9781472480705