An economic evaluation of restorative justice post-sentence in England and Wales.

Introduction: Participation in restorative justice interventions post-sentence has been shown to reduce reoffending and mitigate harm to victims. Investment in, and access to, restorative justice remains limited in England and Wales. An economic model was developed to synthesize the available evidence in order to develop contemporary and robust estimates of the economic impact of investment in restorative justice interventions. Methods: This research focused on direct and indirect restorative justice interventions for victims and offenders post-sentence in England and Wales. Included offences were those with an identifiable victim. A model was developed to estimate the social benefit-cost ratio of restorative justice, as well as the direct financial return to the criminal justice system. The modeled benefits of restorative justice included reductions in reoffending and direct wellbeing benefits for victims. It was not possible to incorporate direct wellbeing benefits for offenders due to evidence gaps. Results: In the model, 8% of referrals to restorative justice resulted in direct restorative justice interventions and 19% resulted in indirect Restorative justice interventions. The modeled cost of the restorative justice pathway per direct intervention was £3,394. The base case estimate for the social benefit-cost ratio of restorative justice was £14 per £1 invested, with a direct return to the criminal justice system of £4 as a result of substantial reductions in reoffending. Scenario analysis suggested a plausible range of £7 to £20 social benefit per £1 invested. Hypothetically, increasing the proportion of eligible cases referred for a restorative justice intervention from 15 to 40% could be associated with an increase in investment of £5 m, and benefits to the criminal justice system totaling £22 m, implying a net saving of £17 m. Conclusion: The research suggests that Restorative justice has the potential to yield a substantial social return on investment (SROI) and direct return on investment to the criminal justice system. The economic case for investment in restorative justice centers on identifying offenders with a high risk of offending and enabling them to participate in an intervention that has been repeatedly demonstrated to help them to change their behavior.

Measurement of naphthalene uptake by combustion soot particles.

In this study, we designed and constructed an experimental laboratory apparatus to measure the uptake of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by soot particles. Results for the uptake of naphthalene (C10H8) by soot particles typical of those found in the exhaust of an aircraft engine are reported in this paper. The naphthalene concentration in the gas phase and naphthalene attached to the particles were measured simultaneously by a heated flame ionization detector (HFID) and a time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (ToF AMS), respectively. The uptake coefficient for naphthalene on soot of (1.11 ± 0.06) × 10(-5) at 293 K was determined by fitting the HFID and AMS measurements of gaseous and particulate naphthalene to a kinetic model of uptake. When the gaseous concentration of naphthalene is kept below the saturation limit during these experiments, the uptake of naphthalene can be considered the dry mass accommodation coefficient.