‘So,your words weren’t twisted were they?’: Formulations in a restorative justice meeting

Formulations, one type of talk about talk, arise in restorative justice meetings just as they do in other discursive domains. They represent explicit references to things said previously and can perform several functions. Our study of formulations in a restorative meeting between probation staff and an offender identified five such functions: communicating active listening, promoting affiliative talk, changing the offender's way of thinking, praising the offender, and emphasising professionalism in criminal justice. The first four of these are more tightly or loosely aligned with models of restorative justice and rehabilitation, but the emphasis on professionalism in criminal justice is not.