Call for restorative justice services in sex crime cases

Sex crime victims should have the chance to face their attackers through restorative justice, rather than relying solely on the "heartbreaking" adversarial system for closure, a report claims.

The study, launched today, is based on the views of 149 research participants, including 30 victims of sexual crime and 23 sex offenders.

It claims that, in addition to causing hurt and anxiety among victims, the current system is so adversarial that it is likely to result in the offender denying that they committed any offence.