Restorative justice as an innovative approach to crime and criminal justice has been growing constantly over the past twenty years. Its practices seem to hold great promise for victims, offenders, local communities and the criminal justice system. Research has been set up in many countries to assess and explore restorative justice processes and outcomes. In spite of many programme evaluations showing positive results, risks have been identified as well. Moreover, critics have depicted research in the field of restorative justice as ‘a mile wide but only an inch deep’. This book takes up this challenge by examining restorative justice research as it is undertaken in nine European countries during last twenty years.

Therefore, the book is not yet another collection of theoretical essays on restorative justice, but provides an overview of empirical research on victim-offender mediation and conferencing. The research deals with a variety of topics and many of the findings have never been published in English before. The book tries to present research approaches and results in various countries according to a common structure, in order to enhance comparison and allowing further reflection on the possibilities and limits of undertaking European research in this field. The work results from the EU funded COST Action A21 on ‘Restorative justice developments in Europe’ and includes contributions of researchers with a broad experience in the restorative justice field, supported by policy-makers and practitioners.

Target group

Policy-makers and practitioners

Author's information

The editors are all three members of the Catholic University of Leuven Institute of Criminology and have been active in restorative justice research both in Europe and internationally.