Full Text Documents on RJ Online

Read full text documents collected on RJ Online.

Van Ness, Daniel. Shalom

In this brief essay, Van Ness sketches the fundamental elements of the idea of shalom as found in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and connects shalom to understanding and responding to crime.

Van Ness, Daniel. The Role of the Church in Criminal Justice Reform

Addressing a forum on restorative justice with participants from diverse perspectives, Daniel Van Ness focuses on the role of the Christian Church in criminal justice reform, particularly reform oriented around restorative justice.

Van Ness, Daniel. The Shape of Things to Come: A Framework for Thinking about A Restorative Justice System

Daniel Van Ness begins this paper with a sketch of recent initiatives that signal a worldwide interest in restorative justice among national governments and the United Nations.

Van Ness, Daniel. Today salvation has come

In December 2001, Daniel Van Ness preached a sermon at Wesley Church in Perth, Australia. The text was Luke 19:1-10, in which is recounted the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus, a Jewish tax collector in Israel for the Romans. As a tax collector, Zacchaeus was almost certainly corrupt and despised by his own people as a collaborator with the Roman occupiers.

Van Ness, Daniel. Trends in Prisons Around the World and in Latin America

In this paper Daniel Van Ness surveys trends and developments in prisons around the world and in Latin America.

Van Ness, Daniel. Victim Offender Mediation Programmes

In this address to the Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature in Paris, Van Ness describes the development and variation of victim offender mediation programmes.

Van Sluytman, Margot. 2008. Finding a Song -- New Narrative After Murder

Margot Van Sluytman describes how the murder of her father affected her life and the healing that came through meeting with the offender in the murder.

Van Wormer, Katherine. Restorative justice and social work

Van Wormer has professional experience in both social work and criminal justice. She finds them vastly different, as she illustrates through a contrast of some key terms and concepts in each field.

Vanspauwen, Kris and Ricky Röntsch. 2006. Conference Report: The Politics of Restorative Justice in Post-Conflict South Africa and Beyond. Cape Town, 21-22 September.

A decade after the formal political transition it seemed appropriate to explore the form and content of restorative justice principles and practices and to engage with the challenges confronting the institutionalisation of this model. This two-day international conference examined selected aspects of the model of restorative justice in post-apartheid South Africa. (excerpt)

Wilson, D. A. (2009). Platforms for a restorative society in Northern Ireland. University of Ulster.

This text argues that promoting restorative practices – through actions that remedy wrongs, actions that bring people who have been estranged into relationships, new ways of working and new structural arrangements – is a practical way of building platforms of reconciliation practice and a restorative culture in daily life in Northern Ireland.

Wilson, D. A. (2010). Promoting previously unthinkable ways -- Some restorative learning tasks in Northern Ireland. Paper prepared for ESRC Core Group on Restorative Approaches in Schools, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, June 2010.

The restorative task in Northern Ireland is deeply entwined with civic, public and political life and the extent to which we can acknowledge our violent past, permit ourselves to take risks, meet in a human manner and discount apparently rational reasons we have been given to distrust others. It is to transgress the historical boundaries of asymmetric relationships with state authority and the more recent conflicted history of deep mutual antagonism in our midst and let the reconciling part in each of us fly more freely, without being smothered by the politics of reason, important though politics is (See Wright, 1987, xi-xv). In Northern Ireland so many of one’s friends and significant others are members of one’s own cultural, political or religious traditions and the pressure on more newly arrived citizens is to follow this pattern also. These patterns, aligned with an historical ambivalence to violence that has excused ‘my violence as provoked’ but has rejected ‘your violence as ‘unacceptable’, now means that the restorative task is about opening people up to trust those they have previously seen as ‘the enemy’ and about establishing agreed public institutions that serve all equitably and new and agreed law and order structures that effectively criminalise violence and end any ambivalence about it. Restoring an openness to those previously seen as my enemy in an ethnic frontier area as well as an openness to those who are new citizens, demands that: citizenship, not group identity, is established as the primary point of identification; people find relationships and civic and political structures that enable all to deal more openly with the legacy of the past; core values are established at the heart of public and civic life about treating one another equitably, appreciating the diversity each brings and promoting our mutual interdependence (Eyben et al, 1997);and that public, civic and political society spaces empower people to create a more civil society. The restorative task is to empower the voices and actions of people of all ages who wish to take risks, equipping them with the knowledge that virulent circles of pessimism, avoidance, communal deterrence and local essentialism can be dissolved through building ease with different others, supporting people in making change a lasting reality and in promoting commitments between people and groups that establish and sustain ‘process-structures’ within the society that address “both the symptoms and causes of historic polarisation…support constructive change…and bring together strategic, often improbable, alliances’ (Lederach,2007)” The restorative task is not just one for children and young people but for all ages and institutions. The need for citizenship education for children and young people needs couched within a wider inter- generational commitment to see one another as equal citizens of one place and not primarily as members of opposed identity groups. Building a more restorative culture in society is to: build a new practice that works critically and reflectively within existing traditions and institutions; enable people to transgress traditional boundaries and meet; support existing organisations re-envision their role in the light of a new and agreed political dispensation; and set free initiatives that are transformative because of their inclusive structures or the focus of their work. There is a Madagascan image that eggs, once hatched, soar (Atran, 2010). Reconciliation practice over many years has been incubating relationships between unexpected people so that they, with others, can soar above distrust and fear. It is important that these relationships are now used in the practical task of restoring equity, promoting trust and securing agreed, commonly owned and non-partisan civic, public and political structures within which people of all ages can move more freely and at ease with different others. (author's abstract)

Workman, Kim. 2009. Communities of Restoration – Thinking Biblically, Speaking Secularly.

For more than five years, Prison Fellowship New Zealand has run a 60 bed faith based unit at Rimutaka Prison, near Wellington. He Korowai Whakapono (HWK) is a 60 bed unit based at run in a partnership agreement between Prison Fellowship NZ (who provide the programmes staff, programmes and volunteers), and the Department of Corrections, (who provide the facilities and custodial staff.) It is a Christ-centred, transformational approach, based on a programme of spiritual teaching and prayer, with an emphasis on mutual accountability, and positive social engagement. Prisoners serving their last two years of a sentence can volunteer for the programme, which lasts around 18 months. Eight months before release, prisoners are matched with a mentor who will prepare them for release, and continue to mentor them for up to two years following release.

Workman, Kim. 2012. Restorative justice: Victims, violators and community -- The path to acceptance. Presentation to International Conference &Workshops of Restorative Justice, Human Rights & Peace Education, Chang Jung Christian University.

The presenter will discuss the circumstances which gave rise to the acceptance of, and resistance to, the introduction of restorative justice in New Zealand. He will also discuss the development of an indigenous approach to restorative justice, and the relationship between Māori cultural values and restorative justice. The presenter draws on restorative justice practise in the following areas: Indigenous approaches to restorative justice; Family Group Conferencing in the Youth Justice System; Adult pre-sentence restorative justice; Sycamore Tree – an in-prison victim-offender panel programme ; In Prison Restorative Justice Conferences. (Author's abstract)

Workman, Kim. The Future of Restorative Justice – Control, Co-option, and Co-operation

This paper explores the history of restorative justice in New Zealand and lays out a course for the future.

Wright response to Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour

Martin Wright's response to the Independent Commission's consultation paper.

Wright, Martin, (2002) Restorative Justice Outside the Criminal Justice System: How Far Have We Come? Paper to Second Conference of the European Forum for Victim/Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice. Oostende, Belgium, 10-12 October 2002.

Many people have commented on the difficulty of defining restorative justice. It is like a growing child: as soon as its parents have provided some clothes, it has grown and more are needed. The idea of community involvement in the process is just one example. Its grandparents, so to speak, come from different backgrounds; and many of them were practitioners rather than theorists. This paper will consider how restorative justice started with programmes that brought the community into the criminal justice system or diverting cases out of it, ending with the use of restorative justice outside the system. (excerpt)

Wright, Martin. (2010). Response by Dr Martin Wright to European Commission consultation document: Taking action on rights, support and protection of victims of crime and violence.

The key to this reply is in the last answer: that in principle restorative justice practices should be available to all victims, subject only to the safeguards mentioned in the reply to Question 17. Restorative processes are in the interests not only of victims, but also of offenders and the community.

Wright, Martin. 1996. Victims, Offenders, and their Families: Selecting a Model for Family Group Conferences.Paper for SÉMINAIRE MÉDIATION: 3ème Rencontre Internationale, Oñati,6-7 June 1996.

This paper first considers the desirable features of an ideal system of responding to crime. Victim/offender mediation has been developed in New Zealand, influenced by Maori concern at the over-representation of their young people in the care system and in juvenile justice, in the process known as family group conferences (FGCs). At about the same time Braithwaite's concept of "reintegrative shaming" was published in Australia, and a different model of conferencing evolved there. Advocates of both models have visited Europe and North America, where there is considerable interest. But which model should be used? It is suggested that there should not be an either/or choice: practitioners should reconsider the aims and objectives of the justice system, and then decide how the principles of restorative justice could be applied in their country to conduct each stage of the process in the best interests of victims, offenders and the community. (Author's abstract)

Wright, Martin. 1997. Key questions on victim/offender mediation. Warsaw Seminar, October 2007.

After pilot projects with juvenile offenders, amendments to the Polish Penal Code come into force on 1 January 1998: victim/ offender mediation will be introduced for both adults and juveniles. A seminar was held at Popowo, near Warsaw, in October 1997, under Council of Europe auspices, to discuss the experience of some other European countries. Participants were asked to consider a number of questions; the following is an attempt to answer them. (excerpt)

Wright, Martin. 1997. Victim/Offender Mediation in the United Kingdom: Legal Background and Practice.Seminar on Mediation between juvenile offenders and their victims. Council of Europe and the Ministry of Justice of Poland, Popowo, near Warsaw, 22-24 Oct

In the two decades since then, problems have been raised and answered, some practices have been criticized, new methods developed, and research conducted; out of all this a theory is emerging, which has been given many names, but is perhaps most commonly called restorative justice. This maintains among other things that assisting the victim's recovery should be a primary aim of the system; that offenders should be held accountable for the harm they have caused to the victim, but in a constructive way; that it is appropriate for victims to be involved in agreeing an action plan for the offender because it is reparation (but victims should not be involved in punishment ); the commun¬ity should take part in this process and contribute to the necessary resources; and there should be feedback from the process to the agencies responsible for crime prevention. Unlike the conventional justice system, restorative justice regards the process as important in itself, and measures its success by the effect on the victim as well as on the offender; research has almost always found that a high percentage of victims and offenders felt that the process had been helpful and fair. Lower reconviction rates are not a primary aim; victim/offender mediation is regarded as successful if they remain the same, provided that victims feel satisfied and offenders consider that they have been fairly dealt with. There are other secondary aims such as saving the time of prosecutors and courts (and hence saving money), and dealing with cases more quickly.