Restorative Solutions Contributes to a New Book About Violence in Society

Crispian Strachan is a non executive director at Restorative Solutions and he has contributed to the upcoming book "How we can become a less violent society", produced by the Monument Trust. Including contributions from 44 journalists, MPs and professionals across the public sector, the book features contributions from award winning Guardian journalist Gary Younge, Chief Constable Mike Barton, Jonathon Poynton from Red Thread, Will Linden of Glasgow’s Violence Reduction Unit, and a foreword from Vicky Foxcroft MP, a co-chair of the Youth Violence Commission, amongst many others. 

The essays encompass perspectives on curing violence from across public services and civic society, including insights into tackling paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland, public health approaches pioneered in Cardiff, service users voices, violence reduction in children and family services and community led approaches from New York City and many others.

Crispian Strachan was previously a police officer for over thirty two years in the Metropolitan, Strathclyde and Northumbria forces including five years as a Chief Assistant Constable in Strathclyde and seven years as Chief Constable of Northumbria from 1998 - 2005.

During his time in Northumbria, Crispian authorised research by Cambridge University academics into restorative justice procedures which produced effective savings, reduced recidivism and greatly increased satisfaction for victims. He has been involved ever since in advising nationally on restorative techniques within crime prevention organisations and is also a visiting supervisor at Cambridge University.

Speaking about his contribution to the book, Crispian said "Violence is a plague in society and damages victims in many ways. Evidence is mounting that traditional criminal justice procedures alone do not help, but that restorative techniques offer greater understanding and better closure to both offenders and victims. I am happy to help achieve change in this way."

We are so pleased that Restorative Justice has been given a prominent position in this important new publication and we look forward to reading the book in its entirety when it is published on 29th October in London.