The present handbook offers, in a quick reference format, an overview of key considerations in the implementation of participatory responses to crime based on a restorative justice approach. Its focus is on a range of measures and programmes, inspired by restorative justice values, that are flexible in their adaptation to criminal justice systems and that complement them while taking into account varying legal, social and cultural circumstances. It was prepared for the use of criminal justice officials, non-governmental organizations and community groups who are working together to improve current responses to crime and conflict in their community
A powerful argument for adopting a model of restorative justice as part of the Innocence Movement—so exonerees, crime victims, and their communities can come together to heal In Rectify, a former Innocence Project director and journalist Lara Bazelon puts a face to the growing number of men and women exonerated from crimes that kept them behind bars for years—sometimes decades—and that devastate not only the exonerees but also their families, the crime victims who mistakenly identified them as perpetrators, the jurors who convicted them, and the prosecutors who realized too late that they helped convict an innocent person. Bazelon focuses on Thomas Haynesworth, a teenager arrested for multiple rapes in Virginia, and Janet Burke, a rape victim who mistakenly IDed him. It took over two decades before he was exonerated. Conventional wisdom points to an exoneration as a happy ending to tragic tales of injustice, such as Haynesworth’s. However, even when the physical shackles are left behind, invisible ones can be profoundly more difficult to unlock. In the midst of Bazelon’s frustration over the blatant limitations of courts and advocates, her hope is renewed by the fledgling but growing movement to apply the centuries-old practice of restorative justice to wrongful conviction cases. Using the stories of Thomas Haynesworth, Janet Burke, and other crime victims and exonerees, she demonstrates how the transformative experience of connecting isolated individuals around mutual trauma and a shared purpose of repairing harm unite unlikely allies. Movingly written and vigorously researched, Rectify takes to task the far-reaching failures of our criminal justice system and offers a window into a future where the power it yields can be used in pursuit of healing and unity rather than punishment and blame.
This book provides a comprehensive and authoritative account and analysis of restorative justice, one of the most rapidly growing phenomena in the field of criminology and justice studies. This book aims to meet the need for a comprehensive, reliable and accessible overview of the subject. It draws together leading authorities on the subject from around the world in order to: elucidate and discuss the key concepts and principles of restorative justice explain how the campaign for restorative justice arose and developed into the influential social movement it is today describe the variety of restorative justice practices, explain how they have developed in various places and contexts, and critically examine their rationales and effects identify and examine key tensions and issues within the restorative justice movement brings a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives to bear upon the understanding and assessment of restorative justice. The Handbook of Restorative Justice is essential reading for students and practitioners in the field.
Restorative justice represents “a paradigm shift in the way Americans conceptualize and administer punishment,” says author Maisha T. Winn, from a focus on crime to a focus on harm, including the needs of both those who were harmed and those who caused it. Her book, Justice on Both Sides, provides an urgently needed, comprehensive account of the value of restorative justice and how contemporary schools can implement effective practices to address inequalities associated with race, class, and gender. Winn, a restorative justice practitioner and scholar, draws on her extensive experience as a coach to school leaders and teachers to show how indispensable restorative justice is in understanding and addressing the educational needs of students, particularly disadvantaged youth. Justice on Both Sides makes a major contribution by demonstrating how this actually works in schools and how it can be integrated into a range of educational settings. It also emphasizes how language and labeling must be addressed in any fruitful restorative effort. Ultimately, Winn makes the case for restorative justice as a crucial answer, at least in part, to the unequal practices and opportunities in American schools.
"Restorative justice theory has largely failed to keep pace with the rapid expansion of restorative practices worldwide – indeed, it is remarkable how much support RJ has when so few advocates can even define what it is. As such, this insightful and comprehensive new contribution from two of the top scholars on the frontlines of restorative justice research is hugely welcome." Professor Shadd Maruna, Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Manchester "Reimagining Restorative Justice is a reflective and balanced reconsideration of restorative justice. It deftly sweeps across the large literature on the subject, putting it in perspective, seeing anew through its wide-angle lens. Empowerment and accountability provide a fertile framework for this richly reimagined justice." Professor John Braithwaite, Australian National University "David O'Mahony and Jonathan Doak have made a significant contribution to the confusing and over-complicated field of restorative justice theory. They do so through their use of empowerment theory to bring conceptual and operational clarity to the concepts of agency and accountability in restorative processes and outcomes. As a result they develop a convincing argument for face to face dialogue between victim and perpetrator within the core of the criminal justice system. Their emphasis upon ethical and skilful practice is a welcome riposte to the rapid spread of 'restorative justice lite' driven by managerialism and the need to cut costs." Tim Chapman, Lecturer at the University of Ulster. "O'Mahony and Doak convincingly argue that rapid developments in the practice of restorative interventions have outstripped restorative justice theory. They provide both an outstandingly helpful review of the literature and a fresh theoretical approach based on empowerment theory. Everyone seriously interested in restorative justice will want to reflect carefully on the authors' conclusions." Anthony Bottoms, Emeritus Wolfson Professor of Criminology at the University of Cambridge. In recent years, restorative-based interventions have expanded rapidly and are increasingly viewed as a legitimate, and even superior means of delivering justice. The result of this swift but piecemeal development has been that restorative justice practice has outpaced the development of restorative justice theory. This book takes up this challenge by 'reimagining' a new framework for the operation of restorative justice within criminal justice. In essence, it is contended that the core empowering values of 'agency' and 'accountability' provide a lens for reimagining how restorative justice works and the normative goals it ought to encompass.
Theories and practices of justice do not meet the socio-political challenges of our times. For those theorists attempting to develop an alternative to the criminal justice system, restorative justice has provided an alternative horizon. The restorative justice approach involves meeting people, understanding and recognising their vulnerability through participatory and deliberative forums and practices. The aim of this collection is to bridge the distance between restorative justice and the critical theory tradition. It, on the one hand, takes into account the limits of restorative justice as they have been articulated, or can be articulated through critical social theory, and on the other hand emphasises the ground-breaking potential that restorative justice can bring to this tradition as a way to address crimes, conflicts and injustices, and to pursue justice.
Restorative justice has developed from a barely known term to a central role in debates on the future of criminal justice. But as it has moved into the mainstream so new tensions and issues have emerged as it becomes increasingly integrated into normal practice, and part of broader legal and judicial systems both in common law countries and those with centralised legal systems. The purpose of this book is to explore this developing relationship between the concepts and practice of restorative justice on the one hand, and the law and legal systems on the other. Amongst the questions it addresses are the following: how are informal processes to be juxtaposed with formal procedures? what is the appropriate relationship between voluntarism and coercion? how can the procedures and practices of restorative justice be combined with legal standards, safeguards and precepts?
Rebuilding community connections outlines the main features of restorative justice, including different models and research findings, and proposes guidelines for setting up programmes. It also identifies problems and ways of dealing with them. This guide provides essential information for those planning to introduce restorative justice, in particular countries in central and eastern Europe. For countries that have already done so, it offers an opportunity to review practice in the light of experience and research elsewhere. -- Council of Europe.
Handbook of Restorative Justice is a collection of original, cutting-edge essays that offer an insightful and critical assessment of the theory, principles and practices of restorative justice around the globe. This much-awaited volume is a response to the cry of students, scholars and practitioners of restorative justice, for a comprehensive resource about a practice that is radically transforming the way the human community responds to loss, trauma and harm. Its diverse essays not only explore the various methods of responding nonviolently to harms-done by persons, groups, global corporations and nation-states, but also examine the dimensions of restorative justice in relation to criminology, victimology, traumatology and feminist studies. In addition. They contain prescriptions for how communities might re-structure their family, school and workplace life according to restorative values. This Handbook is an essential tool for every serious student of criminal, social and restorative justice.
