Events
Hate Crime and Restorative Justice Conference - 16th October 2017
The Criminal Justice Partnership in partnership with UCLan Law School and Merseyside CRC held a Hate Crime and Restorative Justice Conference at the university, with over 70 delegates attending from a range of agencies.
Presentations were given by Dr. Kim McGuire (UCLan Law School) and Ian Hutchinson (Merseyside CRC) who discussed the implementation of an offender focused hate crime restorative justice programme called Dignity Plus.
Gary Stephenson (Restorative Solutions) highlighted the issues around hate crime referral rates and providing victims with an opportunity to ask questions about their victimisation. Helena Cryer and Phil Cawley, both from Lancashire Constabulary’s Restorative Justice Unit, outlined how restorative justice is being used more by Lancashire Constabulary, with responses to hate crime now adopting restorative justice processes when appropriate.
The occurrence of transsexual hate crime was raised by Steph Holmes, with Steph talking about the support group Chrysalis and how the trans community are also affected by hate crime. A key message from this talk was increasing the confidence of victims to come forward and report their experiences of hate crime. This message was reflected in Mel Close’s presentation (Disability Equality), which focused upon disability and hate crime and how disabled individuals are often reluctant to report incidents of hate because they are either unsure how or scared of getting people into trouble.
Throughout all talks, the underreporting of hate crime was a common theme, with speakers and delegates agreeing that more needs to be done to raise awareness of hate crime, how to report it and the potential benefits of restorative justice processes.
UCLan Distinguished Visitor Programme– 2nd and 3rd February 2017
As part of our Distinguished Visitor series Professor Shadd Maruna, Professor of Criminology in the School of Law, University of Manchester was invited to present a series of events by Professor Helen Codd; three public engagement events were held over the two days.
The first was a public lecture titled ‘A Conversation with Shadd Maruna’. The second event was entitled The “Rehabilitative Culture” Approach in British Prisons: Cheers and Fears Regarding a Hopeful New Development. This event was hosted at HMP Kirkham and had an audience of over 60 people. The focus of the talk centred upon rehabilitation and the difficulties of achieving this within prisons. The final event involved a showing of the Road from Crime documentary on desistance, with a panel and audience discussion following the screening. Again this was attended with a very diverse audience of people working in the criminal justice sector, students and academics.
Commenting on the visit Professor Maruna stated:
"I had a tremendous time at UCLan and HMP Kirkham. At all of the talks, I was particularly impressed with the great mix of participants from across several universities, three or more area prisons, youth offending teams, probation, and well beyond. The various presentations – especially the “Road from Crime” documentary – really seemed to generate some important discussions across these different groups. I probably left learning more than the other attendees. I also left really impressed at the cross-disciplinary partnerships developing at UCLan and the rehabilitative culture being created at Kirkham. I certainly plan on keeping up some of the connections I made."
- Innovations in Restorative Justice: Emerging Conversations – one-day symposium, June 2015
UCLan held an event with over 100 practitioners and academics from a range of sectors including the police, probation and youth justice. The event provided an opportunity to:
- Understand and discuss the latest research on restorative justice and its effectiveness.
- Hear about success stories and innovations in the field.
- Engage in conversations with academic experts and practitioners on ways forward for restorative justice.
- Community Based Interventions for Women in the Criminal Justice System – Improving Outcomes, 14th October 2016
This event was attended by over 60 delegates and Jenny Earle from Prison Reform Trust was the keynote speaker.
The conference organised by UCLan Criminal Justice Partnership and Lancashire Women's Centres provided an opportunity for delegates to:
- Learn from key policy makers about current priorities for services for women.
- Engage with academics, key agencies, partners and service users in discussions on future directions.
- Hear about Lancashire Women's Centres practice and the findings from UCLan's evaluation of Lancashire Women's Centres’ interventions for women.
23rd November 2016 Public seminar on Restorative Justice Stories: insights into victims' and offenders' experiences presented by Phil Cawley Restorative Justice Manager, Lancashire Constabulary
