Medium Cost Interventions
5. Restorative Justice Orders
Legal or community-based interventions that require offenders to engage in dialogue with victims, acknowledge harm, and take steps to repair it. These orders are often used as alternatives to traditional sentencing, especially for offenses like criminal damage, vandalism, and property-related harm.
Common formats include:
- Victim-offender mediation
- Restorative conferencing
- Community reparative boards
- Restitution agreements.
The ideal outcome is that offenders take responsibility and make amends, victims feel heard/supported, and reduced reoffending/improved community trust.
Facilitator training & staffing: £10,000-£30,000 pa
Program setup (materials, venues, admin): £5,000-£15,000
Delivery per case: £300-£800
Eval & reporting tools: £3,000-£10,000
Total: £25,000-£60,000
Stakeholder engagement & planning: 2-3 months
Training facilitators & setup: 1-2 months
Pilot phase: 3-6 months
Full rollout: 6-12 months
Staff salaries & training refreshers: £15,000-£30,000
Venue hire & logistics: £2,000-£5,000
Monitoring & eval: £3,000-£8,000
Annual Maintenance Cost: £20,000-£43,000
Effectiveness
Strong effectiveness in reducing criminal damage and related reoffending.
Victim satisfaction increased substantially compared to traditional justice. Restorative Justice reduces repeat offending by 30-40%, with 85% of victims reporting higher satisfaction with Restorative Justice than court processes.
Restorative Justice programs showed 48.5% effectiveness in reducing recidivism, with restitution compliance improved in 60% of cases. Restorative Justice conferencing yields an 8:1 cost-benefit ratio - for every £1 spent, £8 is saved in reduced reconvictions.