Expulsion rates dropped by 70%

Two inner city areas in London have been running "restorative justice" pilots and have found that, in up to 70% of cases, there was no need for the perpetrators to be suspended or expelled.

The victims, meanwhile, had their faith in the justice system boosted, said Lord Warner, chairman of the Youth Justice Board.

He said the Youth Offending Teams in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Hammersmith and Fulham had held 132 restorative justice "conferences" - meetings between victims and perpetrators.

The offender might be accompanied by a parent or friend and was put in a room with the victim, who could be another pupil or a teacher, along with a trained mediator, he said.

The perpetrator was usually asked what he was going to do to put things right.

Apology offered

"Invariably what comes out is some kind of apology, some kind of reparation, it depends on the circumstances," Lord Warner said.

In 90 cases, they enabled a child in danger of being ejected from school to stay on, Lord Warner told the Secondary Heads Association's annual conference in Birmingham.

Restorative justice has been used in the United States for some years, and was pioneered in England by Thames Valley Police.

Lord Warner also urged the government to spend more money on parenting courses for mothers and fathers of teenage criminals.

Out of 3,000 people who went on the courses, which involved a two or three-hour session a week for two months or so, and cost the taxpayer about �500, a third found their children stopped offending.

There was an overall 50% reduction in the number of crimes these children committed.