Helping to break down Restorative Justice boundaries in South Korea

• A delegation of school teachers from South Korea visited the Constabulary and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner on Thursday 10 August to learn more about Restorative Justice, as part of a six day visit to the UK
• Restorative Justice opportunities are very limited in South Korea, so the delegation were keen to take their findings back with them
• The group met Jo Berry, daughter of a Brighton hotel bombing victim, and learnt about how to apply Restorative Practices to different scenarios
• Restorative Justice gives victims and offenders the chance to meet face to face so offenders can learn about the impact a crime has had on the victim

Would you be able to make peace with the man who killed your father? Would you even want to meet him? What would be the point?

And how would you get that message across to visitors from a country where such an approach is still relatively foreign?

Those were some of the questions which inspired a delegation of teachers to travel from South Korea to Gloucestershire to learn more about the concept of Restorative Justice, in the hope of developing the approach back home.

Restorative Justice (RJ) offers victims and offenders the chance to meet each other and allows the victim to speak about the impact a crime has had on them. It also enables those who have committed an offence to understand the impact of their actions in the hope of making a positive change and reducing the likelihood of re-offending.

And it can be applied outside the criminal justice system. Anywhere there is a breakdown in relationships or conflict in communities.

Becca Richardson, Restorative Justice Manager at Restorative Gloucestershire, said, “We are always happy to connect with partners from any part of the world, learning from others and sharing insight into the valuable work we do to support communities and individuals in developing conflict resolution skills to address harm, build resilience and move forward positively.”

“We were delighted to welcome a delegation of South Korean educators, who are visiting the UK to see what high quality Restorative Practice looks like, in order to introduce a restorative approach in their own schools.”

Interest in Restorative Justice in South Korea began to emerge among scholars, law practitioners and civil society groups in the late 1990s, but it has only been practiced there since 2010.

The group, accompanied by members of the UK Restorative Justice Council, included teachers and representatives from local educational authorities, are aiming to learn about wider restorative approaches and how it can be used in areas outside the criminal justice system.

Among the examples – criminal and non-criminal – they listened to Jo Berry, the daughter of Sir Anthony Berry, who was killed in the IRA Brighton hotel bombing in 1984. Jo has since met Patrick Magee, who carried out the bombing, on several occasions, and she explained how reconciliation was important to her.

Speaking through an interpreter, a member of the delegation, said “In South Korea there is an established way to teach children, and there is often not a lot of support from society to deliver Restorative Justice. We think that education is about changing cultures, changing lives and changing paradigms.

“In Korea the traditional way of policing is to catch the criminal and enlighten them, and because of this it has been difficult to implement new ways.

“The city we are from is a planned city, meaning it is new with lots of people moving in from various backgrounds and this creates various challenges. For us to establish Restorative Justice, we need societal support, because this is about changing lives”.

Gloucestershire’s Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) has been an advocate of Restorative Justice for many years. Restorative Gloucestershire has won a number of awards and is recognised as a national leader in the field.

The South Korean delegation also visited the University of Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire Educational Authority.