A criminology experiment sponsored by the University received the official seal of approval last week from Harry Woolf, the lord chief justice of England and Wales.
The experiment is meant to test the effectiveness of restorative justice, a procedure in which an offender, who has pleaded guilty, meets with his or her victim, supporters and a Scotland Yard police officer trained in restorative justice.
The parties discuss the harm caused by the crime, as well as ways to repair the it. Agreements are submitted to the judge, who can sentence the offender to less prison time as a result.
Woolf endorsed the testing, which will take place in England, in a recent letter to crown court judges, who must now decide whether to allow the test to go forward. The letter responded to questions from a judge planning to participate in the experiment.
Professor Lawrence Sherman, the co-director of the project, said that he is very pleased with Woolf's letter.
"I'm absolutely delighted," Sherman, the director of the Fels Center of Government and the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, said.
"We've been working on randomized experiments and the effects of different justice outcomes for over 20 years, and it's never been tested in the courts before," he added.
"Now we have the chief justice of the founder of the common law country saying yes," this idea is should be tested in the courts, Sherman said. "People in 10 different countries will be able to cite this letter from Lord Chief Justice Harry Woolf... It's really a major step forward. There is tremendous value beyond this experiment for all experimental criminology."
Sherman said that preliminary work for the experiment has been ongoing since May 2001. Penn students and staff have been investigating how the British judicial system works and looking for cases that will be eligible for this study.
"We've been consulting with literally over a thousand judges, magistrates, probation officials and prison officials to get the agreement to set this up," he said, adding that they have also been training people in the techniques of restorative justice.
"Once we get all of it set out, we have to present it to the University," Sherman said. "We hope to submit this within the next month."
The experiment, funded by the British government, will test offenders charged with burglary, robbery, assault and property crime.
Earlier studies by Sherman and his colleagues in Australia revealed that restorative justice reduced repeat offenses of violent crimes by 38 percent in that country.
According to Carol Shapiro, president of Family Justice, Inc., the restorative justice experiments undertaken by Penn are a good way to test this way of administering justice.
"I think it's great that there's a university and a group of students researching and thinking thoughtfully about how to test this idea," she said. "I also like the notion of challenging punishment as the basis of our criminal justice system, which inherently is filled with disparity."
"Our notion of accountability is through punishment and sanctioning and not thinking about interventions that might be more healing for a community," she added.
Shapiro emphasized that restorative justice has been somewhat marginalized in the United States and should be tested more.
Students involved in the project were happy to learn of Woolf's endorsement.
Caroline Meyer, a Ph.D. student in nursing and criminology, worked in Bowington Prison in England last summer to determine who would be eligible for the experiment.
"As a participant in the project, I am grateful that everything is flowing along to facilitate the trials," she said.
College senior Erin Miller, who spent the summer in England observing in court, also said that she is pleased by what the judge wrote.
"I'm really thrilled that the government is so willing to participate and they really welcomed us," she said. "I'm impressed with how open they are to test this out and how they want to see if it works and if it helps."
