Analysis carried out by Canadian and Australian researchers revealed that both victims and offenders reported greater satisfaction with restorative justice practice programmes than the traditional justice system.

Howard League Scotland believes that it should be possible for the police, victims of crime, social workers, the Reporter or Procurator Fiscal to trigger participation in Restorative Justice. If a case does still proceed to court then at the point of court sentence more use should be made of restorative justice in community sentences.