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Whole school community

Managing incidents that have serious impact on individuals and/or the school

Use restorative justice principles to resolve issues and restore the sense of wellbeing for all involved

Utilise evidence-based responses to incidents such as method of shared concern and no blame approach and social problem-solving methods.

• Summary
• Examples
• Resources

Summary

Restorative justice methods for addressing social problems include the method of shared concern, the no blame approach, restitution, community conferencing and the formal apology.

Restorative justice approaches use the incident of misbehaviour as an educative opportunity for repairing the harm and fostering more socially responsible relationships and behaviours that take others' perspectives into account. This is achieved through carefully structured opportunities for individuals to understand the impact of their actions, recognise their social responsibilities and make amends to those who have been affected by their actions. The young person is also assisted to reintegrate successfully into the school community. The most common form of restorative justice is community conferencing.

The key principles of these methods are:

• Bullying and harassment occur in the context of group behaviour.
• The aim is to develop empathy and concern for others.
• The dynamics that sustain bullying and harassment can be shifted by working with the perpetrators, and often their family and/or peer group.
• A shift in behaviour can be achieved by developing a sense of shared concern for the bullied or harassed persons.
• Punitive measures model and reinforce the abuse of power to meet individual needs, place the target at greater risk of revenge and may send the bullying underground.

Restorative justice approaches require these factors to be in place first:

• the support of the victimised person who needs to have identified that he/she is being bullied and is confident that the approach advocated will work
• preliminary investigation to clearly understand the issues before the process is implemented
• staff guidelines and professional development to build understanding, skills and confidence in using the strategies
• support within the school community for the approach
• agreement that the goal is to solve the problem rather than to interrogate, punish, blame or label individuals
• respectful facilitation of the process by trained people
• follow up monitoring of the agreement.
  

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Examples

• No blame approach
• Method of shared concern
• Formal apology
• Community conference

No blame approach

The no blame approach provides teachers with a way of encouraging empathy and dealing with individual bullying or harassment behaviours. The teacher acts both as facilitator and intermediary between the parties. Here is the no blame approach sequence:

1. Meet the victimised person to provide support, explain the proposed process and collect material on the impact of the bullying or harassment.
2. Consult with teachers who know the peer group well to establish a balanced group consisting of the main perpetrator and supporters, friends of the victimised person, and two assertive peers who have not attempted to prevent the bullying or harassment.
3. Convene a structured meeting of this group (without the targeted student present) to develop shared responsibility without blaming, to elicit suggestions for solving the problem, to encourage shared action and to establish a subsequent meeting (possibly in a week) to discuss progress. (Note: The victimised person does not attend this group meeting.)
4. Support the victimised person through daily meetings to check progress.

• Examples

Method of shared concern

This method (developed by Pikas, 1989) enables the trained teacher or counsellor to establish shared concerns and encourage shared solutions to the problem. The method includes initial individual meetings with perpetrators as well as a final meeting of all parties. This is the method of shared concern sequence:

1. Gather preliminary to understand the problem.
2. Meet each of the perpetrators individually to encourage acknowledgment of the situation and to develop constructive responses and a plan to change the behaviour.
3. Meet the person being bullied or harassed.
4. Meet perpetrators individually to review progress of their agreement.
5. Following positive signs of change, hold a meeting of all perpetrators to reinforce the changes made and prepare for the next meeting.
6. Hold a final combined meeting of all involved as a public demonstration that the behaviours have ceased.

Instead of 'bullying the bullies', both of these strategies establish shared concerns and shared solutions to reconcile differences and encourage more equitable behaviour.

The Sheffield Project in the UK was able to achieve a 75% success rate with the method of shared concern. However it was found that multiple strategies are needed for those students who persistently bully others. The strategy has also been used effectively in British, other European and Australian schools.

• Examples

Formal apology

The formal apology is a symbolic social contract that can mend relationships and restore personal wellbeing. As a learned negotiation process, it can help to develop empathy and show that the harmony of the group is more important than an individual's victory. A successfully given and received apology involves:

• learning and acknowledging that an accepted norm has been violated
• working out the appropriate time to make the apology
• naming the specific offence to the offended person
• explaining to the offended person why the offence was committed, that the behaviour isn't characteristic of the offender, and that it won't happen again
• communicating that the behaviour wasn't intended as a personal affront (and therefore the other person can feel safe in future)
• showing genuine regret for the behaviour.

As part of any of these restorative processes, individuals are likely to require assistance to develop understanding, skills, confidence and courage in giving genuine apologies.

• Examples

Community conference

This is a formal, scripted meeting attended by the offender, those who have been harmed by his or her actions, and other participants including carers and supporters of the main parties. The conference process establishes the gravity of the offence and its impact on others in a way that enables offenders to face up to their actions and make a sincere apology. The ensuing conference agreement, negotiated to the satisfaction of both parties, enables the young person to make amends to 'the offended' and rejoin the school community, while the shared decision making fosters culturally appropriate practices, support for behavioural change and socially just outcomes for participants. Conferencing is conducted by police and/or other agencies in a number of Australian States and Territories. Training is required to conduct conferences.

• Examples

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Resources

No-Blame Approach

• Kia Kaha website
  http://www.nobully.org.nz/kia_kaha/

  New Zealand's Kia Kaha website, coordinated by Telecom and the New Zealand Police, describes the No Blame Approach and a range of other anti-bullying strategies for schools in user friendly language. The No Blame explanation can be found at http://www.nobully.org.nz/kia_kaha/share.html

Method of Shared Concern

• Bullying in Schools - and what to do about it
  Rigby, K. (1996)
  Camberwell, Melbourne. Australian Council for Educational Research

  The author examines the Method of Shared Concern on pages 209-220.

• School Bullying: insights and perspectives
  Smith, P.K. and Sharp, S. (Eds.) (1994).
  London: Routledge

  Overviews and evaluations of both the No Blame Approach and the Method of Shared Concern are provided on pages pp 195-202.

Apologising

• 'Go ahead say you're sorry',
  Psychology Today, January/February 1995, Vol 28(1), p. 40-46
  Aaron Lazare (1995)

  Through real-life examples, this practical article shows the importance of a genuine apology, one that is offered and accepted, for rebuilding damaged relationships and repairing harm between people or countries. The author outlines the steps and skills that make apologies work.

Community conferencing

• Restorative Justice Programs in Australia
  http://www.aic.gov.au/crc/reports/strang/index.html
  Strang, Heather (2001)

  This 47 page report to the Criminology Research Council reviews the principles of restorative justice and their application in a variety of Australian juvenile justice contexts and school settings (pages 29-34). The review looks at how successful these approaches have been and highlights issues including the safeguarding of individual rights and the appropriateness of the approach for Indigenous communities. The paper is available for downloading from the Criminology Research Council website.