Summary
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In an effort to support restorative justice at the United Nations, the Working Party on Restorative Justice conducted a Delphi process in 1996 to explore the degree to which there was a consensus among scholars on the meaning of the terms (McCold, 1998). This paper revisits the theoretical debate and reconsiders the status of the academic field a decade later. After reviewing the major threads in the evolution of restorative justice, it is shown that developments toward a generally accepted theoretical consensus have made little progress. Some reasons for this lack of development are suggested and the primary impediments to future development are considered. The author proposes a set of general requirements for an initial theoretical foundation and postulates a need-based barebones theory. The author invites interested academics to challenge this structure and encourages broad collaboration in fleshing out a full-fledged theory of restorative justice. (author's abstract)
