- Filter
- Showing 10 posts published between Aug 01, 2009 and Aug 31, 2009 [Show all]
Is there a role for restorative justice in addressing public education issues in Mississippi?
This is in an interdisciplinary seminar, which will be conducted over the course of two semesters, and open to undergraduate honors students, law and graduate students. After a brief introduction into the concept of restorative justice, the first semester will be devoted to the study of existing data and research into other sources in order to gain a full understanding of the history of public education in Mississippi, with emphasis on how the issue of race has informed educational policy and the status of education in Mississippi today.
The second semester will consider potential remedies from a perspective of restorative justice.
Aug 25, 2009 National Reconciliation, Guidelines, Region: North America and Caribbean, Policy, Country:USA, Minority
Justice and mercy
by Dan Van Ness
The compassionate release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of participation in the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, has generated a great deal of discussion. And well it might; 270 people died when the plane crashed (259 passengers and 11 residents of Lockerbie). Al-Megrahi was the only person convicted of the terrorist attack.
Aug 24, 2009 Correspondent:Dan Van Ness, Forgiveness, Victim, Apology, Offender
Healing the victims of Lockerbie
by Lisa Rea
There is not a more high profile case than the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 that killed 270 people when the jetliner blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland. The only convicted man, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was released and returned to Libya on August 21 after serving eight years of a life sentence. Megrahi was released according to Scottish officials because he is terminally ill having only months to live. Scottish governmental official called the decision "compassionate release". But what about the victims? What do they think? Looking through the lenses of restorative justice, is this a fair decision or could more be done?
Aug 24, 2009 Offender, Apology, Correspondent:Lisa Rea
Community Justice Initiatives helps male sex abuse survivors, and offenders
From Johanna Weidner's article on TheRecord.com:
Just like female victims, male victims of sexual trauma struggle to heal, but there are many more barriers for men to get the help they need.
For people who have perpetrated sexual crimes, finding help is perhaps even more difficult.
Supporting those people who are overlooked, and often condemned, is a mission at Community Justice Initiatives.
Aug 21, 2009 Policy, Case:Sexual
Book Review: Discipline that restores
Reviewed by Dan Van Ness
Discipline that Restores is an important and valuable addition to the growing wealth of books on restorative justice in schools. As I will discuss later, the core of the book would be very useful in many contexts, not just schools. But that is the institution the Claassens had in mind as they wrote.
Aug 21, 2009 School, Manual, Book Review
Number of excluded pupils in Wokingham has dropped
From an article at GetBracknell.co.uk:
The number of children expelled from Wokingham schools for bad behaviour has dropped by 30 per cent, but work to keep pupils in education is ongoing.
The latest figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) reveal there were 30 permanent exclusions from Wokingham schools, most of which are secondary, in 2007/08.
This is a drop from the 43 children who were excluded in 2005/06.
Book Review: As We Forgive
From Rachel Mott's review on EvangelicalOutpost.com:
“If they told you that a murderer was to be released into your neighborhood, how would you feel? But what if this time, they weren’t just releasing one, but forty thousand?”
-A survivor of the Rwandan genocide
As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda, Catherine Claire Larson's new book, addresses this and other questions raised by the recent release of fifty thousand men and women who took part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Thanks to the work of several restorative justice ministries and other groups, a growing number of Rwandans have begun to heal and have sometimes even been reconciled with those who murdered their friends and family. Larson intersperses the stories of several of these survivors with thoughtful reflections on healing and forgiveness. Included discussion questions make As We Forgive a good choice for small group use.
Aug 20, 2009 Country:Rwanda, National Reconciliation, Book Review, Region: Africa
Ten years is enough: Remembering the victims of hate crime violence
From the post by Stewart Kwoh, Titi Liu, and Ben de Guzman at APAforProgress.org:
If we have learned anything over the past decade, it is that hate does not happen in a vacuum. In a polarized climate of “culture wars,” the differences and chasms between us overshadow what should bring us together to recognize our common humanity. In such a climate, even the measures intended to prevent hate crimes and address intolerance are politicized. The hate crimes bill that is moving its way through Congress seeks to improve the federal government's ability to enforce hate crimes laws with local law enforcement and has been named after Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was brutally murdered in 1998. The bill includes protections for victims of bias based on sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, and disability.
Aug 20, 2009 Case:Hate Crime
Ethical failures of national GHG emissions reduction proposals approaching Copenhagen
From Donald A. Brown's lengthy post on ClimateEthics.org:
What is each nation’s fair share of safe global emissions is classic problem of distributive justice and restorative justice. Distributive justice is a branch of ethics that examines how benefits and burdens of human activities should be fairly distributed. Climate change is a problem of distributive justice because nations must now decide on how to allocate emissions’ targets among them to achieve an acceptable global atmospheric target.
Restorative justice is a branch of ethics that examines how responsibilities should ethically be assigned to those already causing harm. Because climate change emissions are already causing harm and future emissions limitations are needed to prevent future harm, climate change is a problem that requires thinking through what justice requires as a matter both distributive and restorative justice. Because nations should follow principles of both distributive and restorative justice in allocating emissions targets among nations, nations should explain how their proposed emissions commitments in Copenhagen negotiations comport with these ethical considerations.
Aug 20, 2009 Case:White Collar
For the love of the Amish: Japanese can’t get enough of the Plain-sect culture
From Jon Rutter's article in LancasterOnline.com:
When local Amish expert Donald Kraybill gave talks in Japan this past May, he noticed an amazing thing.
His audiences appeared to be made up of row upon row of surgeons.
The people behind the white masks weren't really doctors, it turned out — they were simply trying to protect themselves during a swine flu scare.
Their fears didn't keep them out of the lecture halls, however. The Japanese have long been fascinated with the Old Order Amish.
The love affair continues to bloom; in fact, it might not be an overstatement to call this Japan's Summer of the Amish.
Aug 19, 2009 Country:Japan, Region: Asia, Community, Region: North America and Caribbean, Indigenous
