Handbook on Restorative justice programmes

4.6 Securing the support of criminal 
justice agencies
It is important to recognize that new restorative justice programmes and
changes to existing programmes require a communication strategy. The
aim is to effectively promote restorative justice approaches to both crimi-
nal justice professionals and the community. This communication strat-
egy can be initiated from a number of sources, including the government
and NGOs. 
HANDBOOK ON RESTORATIVE JUSTICE PROGRAMMES

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The incorporation of participatory processes in the justice system can eas-
ily be perceived as a challenge to the status quo. One should avoid making
the mistake of underestimating the resilience of the status quo, the sys-
tem’s own force of inertia or the active and passive resistance that the pro-
posed changes are likely to face. The proposed changes, if successfully
implemented, will necessarily affect spheres of professional influence and
spans of power and control, or encroach on various people’s “turf”.
Measures that are essentially meant to empower victims and the commu-
nity are likely to be initially perceived by justice professionals as threaten-
ing. At first and unless such perceptions are managed effectively, the
adoption of participatory justice approaches is bound to be interpreted by
many as a zero-sum game, one in which they must lose some of their
power for others to be empowered. 
Criminal justice personnel must be trained in the principles and practice
of restorative justice. Notions of forgiveness and healing, for example,
may be relatively foreign to members of the judiciary trained in legal pro-
cedures and substantive law. Police officers may be reluctant to refer cases
to a restorative justice programme due to a lack of information about
restorative principles and practice generally and, in particular, the specific
restorative programme being implemented. If police are not educated
about restorative justice they cannot inform victims about the benefits of