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London Oslo Rotterdam São Paulowww.liveworkstudio.com
engage young victims
Opportunities to
WORKSHOP REPORT
Restorative Justice Council
1 May 2023Livework © 2015
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This report describes the outcomes of a workshop with RJ practitioners. The aim is to identify opportunities for increased engagement of young victims.
Livework © 2015
OVERVIEW
The workshop conducted by Livework on behalf of the Restorative Justice Council involved 10 participants from various YOTs across the country. Discussion and activities were organisedaround young victims and their families in order to uncover:• Needs and motivations of young victims and their families;• Problem areas preventing a greater take-up of RJ among young victims;• Areas of opportunities with the greatest impact and least effort.
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OVERVIEWFocus is on the initial stages of the process, as we are trying to understand victims’ awareness and understanding of RJ
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Needs and motivations
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NEEDS AND MOTIVATIONS
is essential to a victim-focused approach
Empathising with victims and their families
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Victims can feel shocked and scared and need to regain trust and confidence
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NEEDS AND MOTIVATIONS
I’m shocked, scared, and I don’t
really trust the police to help me.
I keep being harassed after the incident. I just want
to be left alone.
I don’t feel confident walking alone anymore.
I’d like to feel normal again.
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Family members need reassurance that their children will not be harmed anymore
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NEEDS AND MOTIVATIONS
I regret reporting the incident. I
don’t want my son to get harassed
anymore.
I don’t trust the police to keep
my family safe.
I want the offender to tell the truth about what happened. I want my son to be safe.
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Problems
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PROBLEMS
a barrier towards successful engagentof young victims
We identified three areas presenting
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Supporting victim needs and talking their language
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PROBLEMS Young victims will often feel ashamed and that makes it hard to approach them and convince them to talk about
their situation.
It can take months for both the victim and the perpetrator
to agree to participate and meet.
How should I do my opening in order not to
scare the victim?
The language used to approach young victims is often not appropriate for this audience, as it involves many technical terms describing the judicial process and little visual appeal. It doesn’t address their needs.
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Engaging parents to engage young victims
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PROBLEMS
Parents are the biggest obstacle when
approaching young victims.
Parents don’t want their children to be further
traumatised.
Parents often represent a barrier between young victims and Restorative Justice practice. By not being entirely aware of what RJ is, they try to protect their children from entering in contact with their perpetrator and being re-victimized.
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Defining and recording successful outcomes
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PROBLEMS
I never did a single conference in all my time here. Because of the nature of cases I deal with, most of the RJ is done through
apology letters.
Victims often don’t feel the need for a conference.
Although many RJ cases do not reach the stage of a victim-offender conference the outcomes can still be successful for a victim. There is a great amount of relevant work done by RJ practitioners that does not get recognition and is not recorded properly.
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Opportunities
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OPPORTUNITIES
Quick winsEasy-to-implementsolutions for quick impact with minnimum effort
Possible projectsProjects that might require external support and/or funding to complete
Future visionFar-reaching systemic changes with deep impact that might affect future policy making
wins’ as well as a need for systemic changes
engagement with easy-to-implement ‘quick
There are opportunities to increase
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Improving first contactQUICK WIN
There is an opportunity to increase engagement among young victims and their parents by approaching them at the right time, right place and using the right tone of voice.
Understanding parents and their needs is crucial in this process as they often act as gatekeepers.
Possible outcomes• Guidelines on how to approach young
victims and their parents, developed by experienced practitioners based on best practice
• Working with young people to develop appropriate language (co-design)
• Rewriting RJC materials for young people (website, leaflets, …)
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POSSIBLE PROJECT
Victims and their parents often don’t have a clear understanding of the processes dealing with the incident and can feel left out, not knowing where to find answers to their questions.
A digital solution could provide a central point of reference for a victim, enabling them to understand what is going on at all times and stay in control of their case.
Possible outcomes• A digital solution for young victims • Tracking progress of victim’s case• Contacting key people involved• Understanding available options and next
steps• Learning about RJ through visually rich
interactive materials
Empowering young victims with digital tools
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Consolidating the route through services A more unified route with clearly established points of contact through various services could greatly improve the experience for victims and their parents after an incident.
A unified framework needs to be established to record the process of handling the victims and to measure success by their satisfaction with the outcomes.
Possible outcomes• Research ways for different service
providers to work together
• Rethink / redesign success criteria• Establish system to record and monitor
qualitative aspects of RJ process
FUTURE VISION
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Appendix:Individual concepts
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INDIVIDUAL CONCEPTS
developed during the workshop
are a synthesis of individual concepts
The opportunities shown on previous slides
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Concepts developed in the workshop
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Quick wins Easy to implement
Possible projectsRequires funding and/or partners
Future visionSystemic change, policy impact
1. Using the right language2. Developing tools for RJ practitioners
4. Developing an app for young victims (tracking case progress) 5. Creating better leaflets for young victims
3. When, where and how 6. Engaging parents first7. Establishing a library of digital resources
8. A unified route for young victims
9. Training police to explain restorative justice10. Consistently recording victim satisfaction
Engaging young victims
Engaging parents
Definingsuccessful outcomes
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1. Using the right languageCONCEPT
Materials currently given to young victims to describe RJ and options available to them are often less than engaging.
Simple and clear descriptions as well as use of visuals to explain restorative justice could increase engagement among young victims.
Possible outcomes• Working with young people to develop
appropriate language (co-design)• Rewriting RJC materials for young people
(website, leaflets, …)• Providing more appropriate locations for
interviews & conferences (future vision)
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2. Developing tools for RJ practitionersCONCEPT
While some YOTs have developed tried and tested processes to engage young victims, less experienced RJ practitioners are often in need of advice an guidance.
There is an opportunity to unify the processes across YOTs by creating a kit based on best practices that would include tools to facilitate engagement of young victims.
Possible outcomes• Conversation starter cards• Evaluation guidelines• Step-by-step explanation of RJ process• App with interactive guidelines
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3. When, where and howCONCEPT
We could improve engagement with victims and their parents by ensuring that the first contact happens at the right time, the right place, and using the right tone of voice. They need to be given a choice to talk about RJ at the time of their choosing, creating a feeling of care and of a bespoke approach.
Possible outcomes• Research / rethink the process to find the
best time to make first contact• Research ways to better prepare
practitioners to establish these contacts
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4. Developing an app for young victimsCONCEPT
Victims often don’t have a clear understanding of the processes dealing with their incident and can feel left out, not knowing where to find answers to their questions.
A digital solution or an app could provide a central point of reference for a victim, enabling them to understand what is going on at all times and stay in control of their case.
Possible outcomes• A digital solution for young victims • Tracking progress of victim’s case• Contacting key people involved• Understanding available options and next
steps• Learning about RJ through visually rich
interactive materials
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5. Creating better leaflets for young victims
CONCEPT
Materials currently given to young victims to describe RJ and options available to them are often less than engaging and vary across YOTs.
A visually engaging leaflet using simple language to describe next steps and available support services could be created as a standard tool to approach young victims.
Possible outcomes• Leaflet to send / hand out to young
victims to use across all YOTs
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6. Engaging parents firstCONCEPT
Parents often act as gatekeepers, keeping their children from participating in RJ in the hope to protect them from further harm.
Explaining the process to parents and building trust with them first could greatly increase take-up of RJ and bring value to young victims.
Possible outcomes• Research into parents’ journey and their
needs• Workshop with parents• Open mornings about RJ on schools or
community centres
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7. A unified route for young victimsCONCEPT
After an incidents, victims and their parents can get contacted by a number of services, including the police, courts, YOTs, social services, schools, etc. This process is often confusing as they need to answer the same questions multiple times and rarely know who to turn to for information.
A more unified route with clearly established points of contact could greatly improve the experience for victims and their parents.
Possible outcomes• Research ways for different service
providers to work together• Workshop for stakeholders from various
services
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8. Establishing a library of digital resources
CONCEPT
Providing a digital knowledgebase of information about RJ with interactive and video materials, as well as a place to answer their questions (through email or a forum) could remove some doubts that parents and young victims have about the process and convince them that RJ is a safe choice.
Possible outcomes• A digital, interactive library of materials
about RJ• A central resource for parents and others
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9. Training police to explain RJCONCEPT
Police are often the first to establish contact with the victim after an incident and are therefore in the best position to inform the victim about RJ and other options. It is crucial that this first explanation of RJ presents its benefits clearly.
This could be achieved by providing special training for police officers and including information about RJ on materials they are already giving to victims, such as the Victim Care Cards.
Possible outcomes• New Victim Care Cards with info about RJ• Regular RJ workshops/training for police
officers
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10. Consistently recording victim satisfaction
CONCEPT
The current system of recording RJ cases in YOTs does not reflect the amount of work needed to establish and manage victim relationships and is not based on the perceived outcome from a victim’s perspective.
Establishing a framework to measure success based on victim satisfaction would enable RJ workers to keep victims’ best interest at the centre of their work, while providing YJB to set more meaningful goals.
Possible outcomes• Rethink / redesign success criteria• Establish system to record and monitor
qualitative aspects of RJ process from victim’s perspective
