There are many people who contributed, directly or indirectly, to the research project which is at the heart of this book and to whom we would like to extend our thanks. The study itself was funded by the Home Office (and, after 2007, the Ministry of Justice), which also provided funding for the three restorative justice schemes we evaluated. We would particularly like to acknowledge the support provided by the senior research staff at the Home Office and Ministry of Justice who were responsible for managing the evaluation: Robert Street, Blair Turner, Robin Elliott-Marshall and Rachel Walmsley, as well as those in the Economics Unit of the Home Office and elsewhere who provided specific help. We are also indebted to the managers, researchers and practitioners of the three schemes which we evaluated, without whose cooperation and support the project would not have been possible. There are too many to name individually, but we would like in particular to thank Professor Larry Sherman and Dr Heather Strang (Justice Research Consortium), Philip Gilbert (REMEDI) and Ben Lyon (CONNECT). Staff from all three schemes gave generously of their time and many allowed us to observe their practice (we hope as unobtrusively as possible).