Summary
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Restorative justice has gained considerably in appeal in recent years. People from a wide spectrum of philosophical and political perspectives find restorative justice attractive and promising for a variety of reasons and aims: some see in it an affirmation of victims; some, a firm stance emphasizing personal accountability for wrongdoing but without retribution or harsh punishment; others, a return to and strengthening of community; others, a stratagem for cost-savings; and more. George Pavlich steps into the wide-ranging complex of arguments and hopes for restorative justice to offer an analysis of some major themes that underscore two of restorative justice’s key promises: (a) the institution of a form of justice absent the state’s repressive or rehabilitative responses to crime; and (b) the nurture of harmonious communities that practice restorative rather than state-centered formal justice. Examining justice and community through deconstructionist lenses, Pavlich construes restorative justice as a way of challenging, continuously, any given calculation of justice and collective solidarity.
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