by Heather Strang and John Braithwaite. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 052100053X
 
Reviewed by Gregory Strong

In 1999 the Restorative Justice Group in the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, conducted a conference on restorative justice. The purpose of the conference was to shift the debate about restorative justice away from which part of the state would “control” restorative justice to the question of control either by institutions of civil society (e.g., schools, families, private workplaces, churches) or by institutions of the state (e.g., the police, courts, juvenile justice).

This book, then, is a collection of essays by a variety of people on a number of topics pertinent to civil society and restorative justice. Contributors include academicians and practitioners in law and criminology from around the world, but particularly from Australia and North America. Near the end, the book includes a significant bibliography of writings relevant to the many topics addressed throughout the essays.

 
Chapter Summaries:

Introduction: Restorative Justice and Civil Society

Transforming Security: A South African Experience

Two Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Restoration

The Force of Community

The Crime Victim Movement as a Force in Civil Society

Reparations and Restorative Justice: Responding to the Gross Violation of Human Rights

Restorative Justice and Civil Society in Melanesia: The Case of Papua New Guinea

Restorative Justice in Everyday Life

Community Conferencing as a Special Case of Conflict Resolution

Restorative Justice and the Need for Restorative Environments in Bureaucracies and Corporations

'If Your Only Tool is a Hammer, All Your Problems will look like Nails'

Restorative Justice and School Discipline: Mutually Exclusive

The School System: Developing its Capacity In the Regulation of Civil Society

Security and Justice for All

June 2002