The Role and Attitudes of Restorative Board Members: A Case Study of Volunteers in Community Justice

Criminal justice agencies often call for partnerships with the community. In restorative and community justice initiatives, citizen volunteers often serve as decision makers in nonadversarial sanctioning. Although prior research has reported the attitudes of other participants in restorative decision making, such as victims and offenders, none have examined those of community volunteers. We report on findings from a state-wide survey of volunteers serving on Vermont Reparative Probation Boards. In this program, board members meet with probationers to negotiate a “reparative contract” that may include apologies, restitution, community service, and other tasks. We found a board membership that is generally representative of the community, highly supportive of the program, and knowledgeable of restorative justice principles.