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While an increased number of restorative justice (RJ) cases involving sexual violence are observed across England and Wales, the extent and scope of its use remain unclear. This article presents the findings of a brief survey distributed amongst RJ practitioners across England and Wales which aimed to understand the use of RJ in cases of sexual violence. We found that while RJ is widely used in such cases, a comprehensive national picture remains unknown. We found problems both collating and analysing the data because of definitional differences, varying organizational recording mechanisms (within and between organizations and geographical boundaries) plus a lack of national direction across the criminal justice system. We call for the development of a sound evidence base that will promote and support the use of RJ for cases involving sexual violence.

This article considers the recent partial privatisation of probation services in England and Wales from the theoretical perspective of legitimacy. Drawing in particular on Beetham's (1991) work, we argue that the question of legitimacy in respect of privatised probation services is a complex one which requires attention to the multiple – and different – perspectives of key stakeholders or constituencies in the probation field. We argue that in the probation context there are five key stakeholder groups: the general public; offenders and victims; ministers and civil servants; sentencers; and probation employees and their representatives. We consider what is known about the perspectives of each of these groups in turn, before concluding that privatised probation services need to be aware of both the legitimacy deficits they face and the complex dynamics likely to be involved in its cultivation with these different constituencies.