Research summary from the final report on the bethlehem police family group conferencing project may 1998 adobe acrobat version pdf also available may 1998 restorative justice is the latest trend in criminal justice practice that contains the seeds of a radically different paradigm on crime and justice than the traditional deterrence or desert based approaches. Restorative policing experiment the bethlehem pennsylvania police family group conferencing project restorative justice is the latest trend in criminal justice practice that contains the seeds of a radically different paradigm on crime and justice than the traditional deter rence or desert based approaches. Bethlehem police family group conferencing project paper with preliminary results presented at the american society of criminology conference annual meeting chicago 20 23 november 1996this paper is an evaluation of a restorative justice program operated by the police in bethlehem pennsylvania a mid sized american city. The bethlehem pennsylvania family group conferencing project determined that 1 typical american police officers are capable of conducting conferences consistent with due process and restorative justice principles given adequate training and supervision 2 conferencing did not transform police attitudes organization culture or role perceptions but those with the most exposure did move . Full 150 page final report from an experimental study of conferencing by police in bethlehem pennsylvania pdf funded by the national institute of justice office of justice programs us department of justice full 150 page final report from an ex