Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Short-term effects of restorative justice conferences on post-traumatic stress symptoms among robbery and burglary victims: a randomized controlled trial

  • Published:
Journal of Experimental Criminology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives

To examine the impact of face-to-face restorative justice conference (RJC) meetings led by police officers between crime victims and their offenders on victims’ post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Methods

Two trials conducted in London randomly assigned burglary or robbery cases with consenting victims and offenders to either a face-to-face restorative justice conference (RJC) in addition to conventional justice treatment or conventional treatment without a RJC. Post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) were measured with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) within 1 month of treatment for 192 victims. We assessed the prevalence and severity of PTSS scores following treatment, using independent sample t tests and chi square statistics. We further measured the magnitude of the differences between the groups, using effect size analyses.

Results

Analyses show that PTSS scores are significantly lower among victims assigned to RJC in addition to criminal justice processing through the courts than to customary criminal justice processing alone. There are overall 49 % fewer victims with clinical levels of PTSS, and possible PTSD (IES-R ≥ 25). Main treatment effects are significant (t = 2.069; p < .05).

Conclusions

Findings suggest that restorative justice conferences reduce clinical levels of PTSS and possibly PTSD in a short-term follow-up assessment. Future research should include longer follow-up, larger and more stratified samples, and financial data to account for the cost benefit implications of RJ conferences compared to ordinary PTSS treatments.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Similar results were detected using chi-square statistics (χ 2 = 4.447; p = .035)

References

  • American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ariel, B. (2009). Systematic Review of Baseline Imbalances in Randomized Controlled Trials in Criminology. Presented at the Communicating Complex Statistical Evidence Conference (University of Cambridge, UK; January 8, 2009)

  • Asukai, N., Kato, H., Kawamura, N., Kim, Y., Yamamoto, K., Kishimoto, J., Miyake, Y., & Nishizono-Maher, A. (2002). Reliability and validity of the Japanese-language version of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised: Four studies of different traumatic events. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 190(3), 175–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basoglu, M., Salcioglu, E., & Livanou, M. (2007). A randomized controlled study of single-session behavioural treatment for earthquake-related post-traumatic stress disorder using an earthquake simulator. Psychological Medicine, 37(2), 203–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bisson, J., & Andrew, M. (2009). Psychological treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD003388. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003388.pub3.

  • Borkovec, T. D., & Inz, J. (1990). The nature of worry in generalized anxiety disorder: A predominance of thought activity. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28, 153–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braithwaite, J. (1989). Crime, shame, and reintegration. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Braithwaite, J. (1999). Restorative justice: Assessing optimistic and pessimistic accounts. In M. Tonry (Ed.), Crime and Justice: A review of research (25). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braithwaite, J. (2002). Restorative justice and responsive regulation. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, R. A., Moulds, M. L., Guthrie, R. M., Dang, S. T., Mastrodomenico, J., Nixon, R. D. V., Felmingham, K. L., Hopwood, S., & Creamer, M. (2008). A randomized controlled trial of exposure therapy and cognitive restructuring for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(4), 695–703.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, A. (2012). Single-session approaches to therapy: A time to review. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 33(1), 15–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale:Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Health. (2011). Talking therapies: a four year plan of action. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/135463/dh_123985.pdf.pdf.

  • Department of Health. (2013). Making mental health services more effective and accessible. Retrieved from:https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/making-mental-health-services-more-effective-and-accessible--2#issue.

  • Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A.-G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 1149–1160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinstein, A., Owen, J., & Blair, N. (2002). A hazardous profession: War, journalists, and psychopathology. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 1570–1575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foa, E. B., Cashman, L., Jaycox, L., & Perry, K. (1997). The validation of a self-report measure of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale. Psychological Assessment, 9, 445–451.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foa, E. B., & Kozack, M. J. (1986). Emotional processing of fear: Exposure to corrective information. Psychological Bulletin, 99(1), 20–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foa, E. B., & Meadows, E. A. (1997). Psychosocial treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder: A critical review. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 449–480.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foa, E. B., & Rothbaum, B. O. (1998). Treating the trauma of rape: Cognitive-behavioral therapy for PTSD. New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillock, K. L., Zayfert, C., Hegel, M. T., & Ferguson, R. J. (2005). Posttraumatic stress disorder in primary care: prevalence and relationships with physical symptoms and medical utilization. General Hospital Psychiatry, 27, 392–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanson, R. H., Sawyer, G. K., Begel, A. M., & Huberl, G. S. (2010). The impact of crime victimization on quality of life. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23(2), 189–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, A. G., Bryant, R. A., & Tarrier, N. (2003). Cognitive behaviour therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. Clinical Psychology Review, 23, 501–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawryluck, L., Gold, W. L., Robinson, S., Pogorski, S., Galea, S., & Styra, R. (2004). SARS control and psychological effects of quarantine, Toronto, Canada. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 10(7), 1206–1212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, M. J. (1976). Stress response syndromes. New York: Jason Aronson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, M. (1982). Stress response syndromes and their treatment. In L. Goldberger & S. Breznitz (Eds.), Handbook of stress: Theoretical and clinical aspects (pp. 711–732). New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, M. J., Wilner, N., & Alvarez, W. (1979). The Impact of Event Scale: A subjective measure of distress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 41, 209–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kilpatrick, D. J., Saunders, B. E., Amick-McMullan, A., Best, C. L., Veronen, L. J., & Resnick, H. S. (1989). Victim and crime factors associated with the development of crime-related post-traumatic stress disorder. Behavior Therapy, 20(2), 199–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kilpatrick, D. G., Saunders, B. E., Veronen, L. J., Best, C. L., & Von, J. M. (1987). Criminal victimization: Lifetime prevalence, reporting to police, and psychological impact. Crime & Delinquency, 33(4), 479–489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kubzansky, L., Koenen, K., Spiro, A., Vokonas, S., & Sparrow, D. (2007). Prospective study of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and coronary heart disease in the normative aging study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64(1), 109–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latimer, J., Dowden, C., & Muise, D. (2001). The effectiveness of restorative justice practices: A meta-analysis.

  • Layard, R., Bell, S., Clark, D.M., Knapp.M., Meacher, M., Priebe, S. & Wright, B. (2006). The Depression Report: A New Deal for Depression and Anxiety Disorders. Centre for Economic Performance Report. London: London School of Economics. Available at: http//cep.lse.ac.uk.

  • Layard, R., Clark, D., Knapp, M., & Mayraz, G. (2007). Cost-benefit analysis of psychological therapy. Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No 829. London: Centre for Economic Performance. [cited 2010 Aug 01]. Available at: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp0829.pdf

  • Marks, I. M., Lovell, K., Noshirvani, H., Livanou, M., & Thrasher, S. (1998). Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder by exposure and/or cognitive restructuring: A controlled study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 55, 317–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCart, M. R., Smith, D. W., & Sawyer, G. K. (2010). Help seeking among victims of crime: A review of the literature. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23(2), 198–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health. (2005). The management of PTSD in adults and children in primary and secondary care. London: National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paluck, E. L. (2010). The promising integration of qualitative methods and field experiments. The ANNALS of American Academy of Political and Social Science, 628(1), 59–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rachman, S. (1980). Emotional processing. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 13, 177–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rash, C. J., Coffey, S. F., & Saladin, M. E. (2008). Psychometric properties of the IES-R in traumatized substance dependent individuals with and without PTSD. Addictive Behavior, 33(3), 1039–1047.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schnurr, P. P., Friedman, M. J., Engel, C. C., et al. (2007). Cognitive behavioral therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder in women: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 297, 820–830.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shafran, R., Clark, D. M., Fairburn, C. G., Arntz, A., Barlow, D. H., Ehlers, A., Freeston, M., Garety, P. A., Hollon, S. D., Ost, L. G., Salkovskis, P. M., Williams, J. M. G., & Wilson, G. T. (2009). Mind the gap: Improving the dissemination of CBT. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47(11), 902–909.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shapland, J., Atkinson, A., Atkinson, H., Chapman, B., Dignan, J., Howes, M., Johnstone, J., Robinson, G. & Sorsby, A. (2007). Restorative justice: The views of victims and offenders. The third report from the evaluation of three schemes. London, Ministry of Justice Research Series 3/07.

  • Shapland, J., Atkinson, A., Atkinson, H., Dignan, J., Edwards, L., Hibbert, J., Howes, M., Johnstone, J., Robinson, G. & Sorsby, A. (2008). Does restorative justice affect reconviction? The fourth report from the evaluation of three schemes, London, Ministry of Justice Research Series 10/08.

  • Sherman, L. W., Strang, H. (2004) Experimental ethnography: The marriage of qualitative and quantitative research. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 595, 204–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherman, L. W., Strang, H. (2005). Evidence-based justice. Lancet, 365, 69–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherman, L. W., Strang, H. (2007) Restorative justice: The Evidence. London: Smith Institute.

  • Sherman, L. W., Strang, H. (2012). Restorative Justice as Evidence-Based Sentencing. In Joan Petersilia and Kevin Reitz, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections (pp. 215–243). NY: Oxford University Press.

  • Sherman, L. W., Strang, H., Angel, C., Woods, D., Barnes, G. C., Bennett, S. & Inkpen, N. (2005). Effects of face-to-face restorative justice on victims of crime in four randomized controlled trials. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1(3), 367–395.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein, D. J., Seedat, S., Iversen, A., & Wessely, S. (2007). Post-traumatic stress disorder: medicine and politics. Lancet, 369, 139–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strang, H. (2002). Repair or Revenge: Victims and Restorative Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Strang, H., Sherman, L, Angel, C., Woods, D., Bennett, S., Newbury-Birch, D., & Inkpen, N. (2006). Victim evaluations of face-to-face restorative justice experiences: A quasi-experimental analysis’. Journal of Social Issues, 62(2), 281–306.

    Google Scholar 

  • Umbreit, M. S., Coates, R. B., & Vos, B. (2000). Victim impact of restorative justice conferencing with juvenile offenders. St. Paul, MN: Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking, University of Minnesota.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, D., & Marmar, C. (1997). The Impact of Event Scale-Revised. In J. Wilson & T. Keane (Eds.), Assessing Psychological Trauma and PTSD. New York: Guildford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zlotnick, C., Franklin, C. L., & Zimmerman, M. (2002). Does “subthreshold” posttraumatic stress disorder have any clinical relevance? Comprehensive Psychiatry, 43(6), 413–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Home Office for England and Wales, the Esmeé Fairbairn Foundation, the Jerry Lee Foundation, the Metropolitan Police Service, the National Probation Service, and the 12 London Crown Courts. We offer special thanks to Jerry Lee, who has made the multi-site RCT program possible, and to the successive Metropolitan Police Commissioners, Lord Stevens of Kirkwelpington and Lord Blair of Boughton, who agreed to assign police to work on the RJC experiments in London. We would also like to thank the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing faculty and staff and Sarah Ratcliffe from the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics for her statistical support.

Conflict of interest

We declare we have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Caroline M. Angel

  2. Jerry Lee Centre for Experimental Criminology, University of Cambridge and Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland, Cambridge, UK

    Lawrence W. Sherman

  3. Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    Sarah Bennett

  4. ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Nova Inkpen

  5. University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Anne Keane & Therese S. Richmond

  6. University of Cambridge, Jerry Lee Centre of Experimental Criminology, Adjunct Associate Professor, Regulatory Institutions Network, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Heather Strang

  7. Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge and Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, Hebrew University, Cambridge, UK

    Barak Ariel

Authors
  1. Caroline M. Angel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lawrence W. Sherman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Heather Strang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Barak Ariel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Sarah Bennett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Nova Inkpen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Anne Keane
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Therese S. Richmond
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Caroline M. Angel.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Angel, C.M., Sherman, L.W., Strang, H. et al. Short-term effects of restorative justice conferences on post-traumatic stress symptoms among robbery and burglary victims: a randomized controlled trial. J Exp Criminol 10, 291–307 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-014-9200-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-014-9200-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation