PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania's Jerry Lee Center of Criminology has been chosen to lead the United Kingdom's test of a program known as Restorative Justice as a Diversion from Prosecution.

The project will be the most substantial test ever conducted of diverting serious offenders from prosecution to "justice without court," said Lawrence W. Sherman, director of the center and a Penn professor of human relations.

The randomized controlled trial will be offered to victims and adult offenders involved in moderately serious felonies, including aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft.

The U.K. test will be conducted by the Justice Research Consortium: Penn, New Scotland Yard, the Crown Prosecution Service of London and the Australian National University.  

In addition to the $1.6 million860,000) provided by the British government, the project will also be supported by previously committed gifts from the Jerry Lee Foundation of Pennsylvania of $800,000 and by more than $1.1 million in police salaries from New Scotland Yard to be dedicated to the full project cost of more than $3.5 million.  

Using new legislation currently before the British Parliament, Penn will work with crown prosecutors to identify cases in which offenders willing to admit guilt would participate in "restorative justice," a consultation between crime victims, offenders and their families and friends.  The process aims for an agreement as to what the offender could do to repair the harm the crime has caused.  

If offenders fail to complete the agreement to complete a drug abuse rehabilitation program, to pay restitution for stolen property to a crime victim or to make donations to a charity designated by the victim, then the case can be referred back to prosecutors for "justice with court." The restorative justice process will be led and supervised by police officers and civilian case managers.

The key research questions will be  

• whether cases assigned to restorative justice result in more offenders being held accountable than in cases assigned to the court process, where charges are often dismissed for lack of witnesses or other evidence.  
• whether cases assigned to restorative justice result in less future crime committed by the offenders or fewer vengeance crimes committed in retaliation.
• whether victims in cases assigned to restorative justice enjoy better health, employment and quality of life than in cases assigned to the court process.
• whether face-to-face meetings of victims and offenders produce better or worse results than consultations through third parties.

The U.K. initiative in restorative justice that made this test possible is based in part on the ongoing Jerry Lee Program in Randomized Controlled Trials in Restorative Justice.  The program began in 1994 at the Australian National University in collaboration with the Australian Federal Police and will now have 25 controlled field experiments in restorative justice.  Eight more tests were added to the Jerry Lee Program in 2001, when Penn's Sherman and Heather Strang, director of ANU's Center for Restorative Justice, received a $2.2 million grant from the British home secretary's office to conduct tests in the U.K.  

These eight tests have examined "restorative justice with court" for different kinds of offenders at different stages of the criminal process.  The randomized controlled trials tested face-to-face restorative conferences following guilty pleas before sentencing for robbery, assault, burglary and other property crime; following sentencing for violent criminals in prison or on probation; and as a final warning before prosecution for juvenile offenders who admit assaults or other serious crimes.  

The tests, undertaken by the Jerry Lee Center at Penn in partnership with police, prison and probation agencies in the U.K.,  are still underway.  The Jerry Lee Program in Randomized Controlled Trials on Restorative Justice at Penn has also received financial commitments in 2004 from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and the Youth Justice Board for more than $555,000, in addition to more than $2 million in Australian and US funding for the work conducted in Australia since 1994.

The Jerry Lee Center of Criminology at Penn is named for benefactor Jerry Lee, president of the Jerry Lee Foundation and of B-101 Radio in Philadelphia.

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