What Impact Does a Pre-sentencing Conferencing Programme Have on Return-to-Court Outcomes for Adult Defendants?

Outcomes of restorative justice conferencing for adult offenders remain underexplored in existing literature. The present study sought to address this gap in knowledge, using existing data to explore return-to-court outcomes following involvement in the adult restorative justice conferencing programme in Queensland, Australia. The data included offending histories and details of all referrals (n = 328) issued between September 2018 and December 2019. This included individuals who went on to complete a conference (n = 175) and those who did not (n = 153), who were utilised as a comparison group. The sample was followed up, on average 2.5 years (n = 887 days; range = 484 to 1,149 days) from the date of conference/referral. Significantly greater reductions in both the number of re-contacts with the court system post-conference and the severity of these offences was observed in the conferenced group, compared to defendants in the comparison group. Average scores for each participant group indicated high satisfaction with the conference. However, a defendant’s experience of the conference had no influence whether they returned to court. Future research should adopt additional measures (e.g. interviews) to examine the choices and experiences of participants that may impact participation and programme outcomes.