Handbook on Restorative justice programmes

6.5 Programme outcomes
The Basic Principles defines a “restorative outcome” as “an agreement
reached as a result of a restorative process”. Restorative outcomes include
responses and programmes such as reparation, restitution and commu-
nity services, aimed at meeting the individual and collective needs and
responsibilities of the parties and achieving the reintegration of the victim
and the offender.
In addition to the dialogue itself, an important objective of restorative jus-
tice processes is the quest for an agreement. Whenever possible, it is
important that agreements be reached by consensus and that all of the rel-
evant stakeholders, e.g. the crime victim, the offender and, where rele-
vant, the community, contribute to and approve the agreement. Further,
the agreement should be tailored to the specific needs of the crime victim,
the offender and the community.
There is considerable variation in the types, scope and components of
agreements that are created from restorative processes. An agreement
may or may not include specific behavioural directives. What is important
is that there is access to relevant resources, programmes and sanctions
that are deemed to be required in the case at hand. This, in turn, requires
that the necessary protocols be in place to provide crime victims and
offenders with access to programmes and services.
The Basic Principles (para. 15) explains that “the results of agreements aris-
ing out of restorative justice programmes should, where appropriate, 
be judicially supervised or incorporated into judicial decisions or judge-
ments”. Where that occurs, the outcome should have the same status as
any other judicial decision or judgement. This is clearly more possible 
in some cases than in others, depending on the structure of the pro-
gramme and its relation to the criminal justice system. The advantage of