Allison Morris, working with Gabrielle Maxwell, is involved in research on restorative justice initiatives in New Zealand. Since writing a  a major research report on family group conferences when they were first introduced in New Zealand, they have edited two volumes of conference proceedings and two books on restorative conferencing for young offenders. They also have many book chapters and journal articles to their credit.  

Their research  includes work on understanding re-offending, the role of youth advocates in restorative justice conferences, Maori and restorative justice, the role of victims in family group conferences and an evaluation of community panel pre-trial diversion pilots in New Zealand. Currently, they are undertaking a series of major studies on the New Zealand youth justice system and an evaluation of pilot programmes for restorative justice in the adult courts. Allison and Gabrielle are jointly responsible for managing a crime and justice research group at Victoria University in Wellington.  

 Allison has had a long academic career. After four years with her alma mater, the University of Edinburgh, she, moved to the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge where she remained for 20 years. In 1993, she became the Director of the Institute of Criminology at Victoria University of Wellington.  She was appointed a professor in 1996.

Allison also has a long interest in the practice of criminal justice. She was a member of the Parole Boards in both Scotland and England. Allison was a magistrate in Cambridge for about ten years before she moved to New Zealand. In New Zealand, she was a member and then chair of the Family Violence Advisory Committee. These activities prompted an interest in comparing restorative justice and the conventional criminal justice processes in situations where women experience violence at the hands of their partners . She strongly feels that it is wrong to set up victims and offenders in competition with one another and that restorative justice can offer a more balanced approach to both victims and offenders.  

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Important Idea:

Family violence has a particular set of underlying characteristics such as the existence of a prior relationship between the parties; the fact that the parties have lived together and may wish to continue living together, the likelihood of repeat victimization, etc., that some see as requiring criminal justice solutions. 

The above circumstances do equally justify a restorative justice approach. The criminal justice system does not serve women who have experienced violence at the hands of their male partners particularly well. Problems include a lack of reporting, arrest, and punishment.  When the system does criminalize offenders, there is little evidence to show that these approaches 'work'.

Restorative justice processes offer women certain benefits:

• increase women's choices, 

• provide women  with the support of family and friends,

• gives women voice,   

• may increase women's safety because of these elements. 

By offering constructive rather than penal solutions, restorative processes may also be opted for at an earlier stage in women's experience of violence.  Restorative justice could be a powerful tool in the empowerment of women.

(Adapted from "Re-visioning men's violence against female partners," The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 39:4 2000.)

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Leading Edge.  Allison is currently interested in revisiting John Braithwaite's theory of reintegrative shaming.  While this theory is important in the development of many conferencing programs, Allison questions its use in practice. The key question is what causes remorse. For Allison and Gabrielle, the answer is empathy instead of shaming (disapproval) as is stressed in reintegrative shaming. This would mean a shifting of emphasis away from shaming to focus on the consequences of offending for others (family, the community, and the victims).

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Reach Allison Morris at Allison.morris@vuw.ac.nz

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