Restorative Justice - Is More Better? The experience of police-led restorative cautioning pilots in Northern Ireland

In recent years there has been a considerable growth in the use of restorative justice schemes, particularly for young offenders.This article describes how two police-led restorative pilots for juveniles operated in Northern Ireland. The pilots were found to offer a number of distinct advantages over the traditional cautioning practice abd helped secure some of the values of retorative justice. However, they were not withour fault and the research found evidence of 'net widening', whereby some offenders appeared to have been drawn into the schemes unnecessarily. It was also evident that the schemes required significant resources in order to involve participants (particularly victims) and to operate effectively. In light of the government's intention to greatly expand restorative practice in Northern Ireland generally, this article argues for the need to do so with care, if the equality of restorative justice is not to be compromised.