(Page 3 of 6) - Long Term Effects of Restorative Justice Conferencing: Do Emotional Dynamics Influence Offending? authored by Rossner, Meredith.

Rossner ASC Submission 2007

change. The control group was prosecuted as usual, while the treatment group consisted
of people diverted from ordinary prosecution into a conference. This research included
separate experiments for drinking and driving, juvenile property crimes (both of personal
property, and “corporate” shoplifting offences), and a juvenile violence experiment.

In both experimental and control cases, a trained member of the research team

was present coding the process. Numerous interactions were coded, including many
actions relevant to the study of interaction ritual and emotions. It is important to note that
the guide was developed to focus on the action, behavior, and treatment of the offender in
the conference/ court. Therefore, the observations are skewed toward the offender.

Measures. Factor analysis was used to create distinct theoretical constructs that

approximate interaction ritual variables. Five distinct factors, which theoretically
approximate three ritual ingredients and two short term outcomes, were identified.

Ritual Ingredients. First, the physical manifestation of offender shame is

measured as the composite variables of sullen behavior, retreating from the attention of
others, speech irregularities, appearing uncomfortable, and hiding behavior (head down,
no eye contact). While shame is not specifically discussed by Collins as necessary for an
interaction ritual in general, it may be important in the restorative justice context, and was
included here. These measurements may approximate an offenders focus and attention
necessary to developing rhythm.

While there were no specific observations for rhythm, there were numerous items

representing disruption. This includes defiant behavior on behalf of the offender, the
amount of time the offender was harassed during the interaction, and how much (s)he
was shouted at. Rhythm was measures as the reverse of disruption.

Finally, previous research indicates that balance is a necessary part of a successful

interaction ritual (Rossner 2006) in restorative justice. This was constructed by
measurements of the offender being dominated, the percent of time the offender spoke,
and how much the offender contributed to the interaction.

Short Term Ritual Outcomes. The observation instrument also contains data on

potential outcomes of an interaction ritual. This includes factor loading for solidarity and
a shared morality. The solidarity scale consists of measures of offender remorse,
emotional response to the description of the consequences of the act, the offender acting
emotionally engaged, the offender crying, and any touching between parties. Shared
morality measures the prevalence of apology, a scale of forgiveness both implicitly and
explicitly expressed, and a measure of the overall emotional power of the conference.

Long Term Outcomes. Interviews with the offender were conducted

approximately 6 months following the conference. These interviews probed for long
term emotional states, such as depression, apathy, and levels of self esteem, all indicators
of emotional energy. In addition self reported offending activities were recorded (for the
reliability of these measures, see Woods 2004). This self report data is a strong indicator
of any emotional energy in the long term.

Analysis 1- Short Term Outcomes. Once the five scales were created, OLS regression
was used to develop a model for interaction ritual both in court and conference. The
independent variables were shame, disruption, and balance, and a dummy variable for
treatment received (court of conference), while the two outcome variables were solidarity