Restorative Policing, 11

Describing and analysing restorative practices within policing shows how police work on the beat, in particular, offers a lot of valuable opportunities to react or respond to problematic anti-social behaviour. Restorative ways of dealing with these situations take place within the normal ambit of police peacekeeping, allowing officers to initiate problem-solving interventions and to deal with the problematic aspects of non-conforming behaviour as well, minimising its damaging social and material effects on victims. Actions to restore social order and to respond to victims’ complaints and points of view contribute, in a win/win approach, to early problem-solving interventions, which can avoid the use of the criminal justice system. Such an approach optimizes the synergy provided by careful community-oriented police action and promotes community and civic interests.

This volume describes and conceptualises the incorporation of these restorative practices within day-to-day policing in the Low Countries, together with some practices from England and Wales. Some restorative practices involve the police responding to criminal offences, but passing the case on for mediation to other agencies. In other situations, the police are much more active within the restorative process, taking the role of mediator themselves. So police may undertake mediation, refer cases to mediation and/or signpost the possibility of mediation to the parties, depending on the situation and the schemes in place in each town and country.

Sinds Community (Oriented) Policing (COP) als officieel denkkader werd aanvaard in ons land is meer en meer het besef doorgedrongen dat de politie een brede dienstverlenende opdracht heeft ten aanzien van de bevolking. Op het kruispunt van herstelrecht en gemeenschapsgerichte politiezorg ontwikkelden zich de laatste jaren lokaal een aantal boeiende praktijken. Politiemensen spreken burgers hierbij aan om zelf in onderling overleg op zoek te gaan naar mogelijkheden tot herstel. In dit Cahier worden mogelijkheden van herstelgerichte praktijken op politieniveau verkend. Hierbij wordt gekeken naar praktijken in binnen- en buitenland en worden de resultaten van het beschikbare wetenschappelijk onderzoek onder de aandacht gebracht.