Life pathways and narratives of young women who have offended and participated in restorative justice
type: CreativeWork
description: This research is a mixed-methods study of young women who offended and were referred to police-facilitated restorative justice in the UK. Through analysis of twelve life history interviews with young women and secondary analysis of administrative police data (N=17,486; 51% male, 46.3% female) from one police force, it captures how women become involved in restorative justice (as victims, offenders, support people) and examines young women’s pathways to offending as well as to desistance. Although restorative justice research has traditionally been quantitative in nature, restorative justice itself works through storytelling, and for that reason, a narrative approach was used for the qualitative study. There were three sets of qualitative findings. First, the young women presented identities that can be characterized in three ways, as “fighters,” “survivors,” or “good girls.” Second, the young women described their own offending to the interviewer through “morality tales,” in which they neutralized offending, for example, as a form of play or a way to be a good mother. Finally, young women’s narratives of restorative justice and the police drew connections between identities, “morality tales,” and experiences in restorative justice highlighting that previous negative experiences with police; poor facilitation by the police during restorative justice; previous histories of victimization; and complex relationships with the young women’s victims all impacted on young women’s experiences in restorative justice. In the quantitative study, secondary analysis was conducted on five years of administrative police data. The analysis focused on general participation in restorative justice by men and women and examined the effect of variables including age, gender, offence type, restorative justice type, group versus alone offending, and relationship between the victim and the offender. Findings revealed that restorative justice in this county was primarily used for very minor o…
abstract: This research is a mixed-methods study of young women who offended and were referred to police-facilitated restorative justice in the UK. Through analysis of twelve life history interviews with young women and secondary analysis of administrative police data (N=17,486; 51% male, 46.3% female) from one police force, it captures how women become involved in restorative justice (as victims, offenders, support people) and examines young women’s pathways to offending as well as to desistance. Although restorative justice research has traditionally been quantitative in nature, restorative justice itself works through storytelling, and for that reason, a narrative approach was used for the qualitative study. There were three sets of qualitative findings. First, the young women presented identities that can be characterized in three ways, as “fighters,” “survivors,” or “good girls.” Second, the young women described their own offending to the interviewer through “morality tales,” in which they neutralized offending, for example, as a form of play or a way to be a good mother. Finally, young women’s narratives of restorative justice and the police drew connections between identities, “morality tales,” and experiences in restorative justice highlighting that previous negative experiences with police; poor facilitation by the police during restorative justice; previous histories of victimization; and complex relationships with the young women’s victims all impacted on young women’s experiences in restorative justice. In the quantitative study, secondary analysis was conducted on five years of administrative police data. The analysis focused on general participation in restorative justice by men and women and examined the effect of variables including age, gender, offence type, restorative justice type, group versus alone offending, and relationship between the victim and the offender. Findings revealed that restorative justice in this county was primarily used for very minor o…
author: Larsson, Birgit
language: en
date published: 2014-09
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:12:08Z
provider: University of East Anglia
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of East Anglia