Restorative justice expert takes up Strathclyde post

A leading authority on restorative and criminal justice is to join the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Law, Crime & Justice as a visiting professor. 

Professor Tim Chapman is currently chair of the board of the European Forum for Restorative Justice, and a leading thinker and regular speaker on youth and criminal justice, including community sanctions and probation.

He was a key architect of the practice guidelines for the Restorative Youth Conference scheme in Northern Ireland, and is an experienced trainer of those who facilitate restorative justice practices.  

Restorative justice brings those harmed by crime or conflict and those responsible for the harm into communication, enabling everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward. It requires highly skilled and sensitive facilitation.

With extensive experience in the Northern Ireland Probation Service, Professor Chapman has also trained politically motivated prisoners convicted of serious offences, in restorative practices in order to move them away from violence, as well as training more than 60 prison officers. His research into the training of judges and prosecutors in restorative justice led directly to a new initiative to extend restorative justice to adults within the Northern Irish court system.  

At Strathclyde he will lead training in the Restorative Justice & Practices Essential Skills Course, and contribute to the teaching of the LLM/MSc in Criminal Justice & Penal Change, as well as collaborating with colleagues on research projects.

Professor Cyrus Tata, director of Strathclyde’s Centre for Law, Crime & Justice, commented: “We’re absolutely thrilled that Tim is joining us. It’s been a privilege to work with him in recent years and so I know first hand the extremely high regard in which he is held in scholarly, practice and policy communities not just in the UK, but across the world.”