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Restorative justice has been the primary approach towards young people who offend and their victims within the youth justice system in Northern Ireland since 2003. It has generally been evaluated as effective and an improvement over previous practices. However there is a small percentage of young people who persist in their offending and have participated in multiple restorative conferences without desisting from harmful behaviour. This affects public confidence in restorative justice and poses a challenge to the Youth Justice Agency. As a result, an innovative Priority Youth Offender Project was developed based upon research into desistance, operating under restorative values and principles and using an adaptation of circles of support and accountability. A sample of young people who participated in this project was studied. This article reports on the findings of the study which confirms that restorative processes can strengthen relationships, generate social capital and contribute to the process of desistance from offending.
Keywords: Restorative justice, social capital, desistance, circles of support and accountability
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