This report explores the risk of victims being coerced or controlled by perpetrators through restorative justice processes in cases involving family violence.

Key findings:

• A restorative justice conference going ahead because of pressure on a family violence victim from their perpetrator is unlikely in cases dealt with by specialist restorative justice practitioners with significant experience of working with cases of family violence.
• The researchers feel confident that if a perpetrator was exerting pressure on the victim to participate in restorative justice, an experienced restorative justice facilitator of family violence cases would be able to ascertain this at the pre-conference stage and would not proceed to a conference.
• That is not to say that the risk of a victim being coerced or controlled to participate in restorative justice by a person who harmed them is not a real possibility. Situations in which this may occur are discussed in detail within the report.