Addressing Needs

Many community or neighbourhood conflicts can result from underlying causes. Through restorative processes, individuals caught up in such disputes can develop an understanding of the underlying needs or causes and develop strategies for meeting these.

Community justice: Not to you or for you, but with you

by Christa Pierpont. The “magic” of restorative practices comes from a principled belief that when there is a breach in relationships, people can re-story their lives (often in gifted ways), given an active and supported responsibility to do so. It is clear from the research report, Restorative Justice: The Evidence, (Lawrence W. Sherman and Heather Strang, Smith Institute, 2007) that individuals can transcend large and small wrongs in a highly satisfactory way with improved long-term consequences when restorative practices are used. Our next question was: Could this opportunity be expanded from individuals to a wider sense of cultural harms?

Community justice: Not to you or for you, but with you

by Christa Pierpont. This is a selection of an article from a special online complement to the Summer 2008 issue of ACResolution, Vol 7, Issue 4. The Association for Conflict Resolution has given permission for it to be used on RJOnline. The complete article is attached. The “magic” of restorative practices comes from a principled belief that when there is a breach in relationships, people can re-story their lives (often in gifted ways), given an active and supported responsibility to do so. It is clear from the research report, Restorative Justice: The Evidence, (Lawrence W. Sherman and Heather Strang, Smith Institute, 2007) that individuals can transcend large and small wrongs in a highly satisfactory way with improved long-term consequences when restorative practices are used. Our next question was: Could this opportunity be expanded from individuals to a wider sense of cultural harms? In particular, could restorative processes begin to address underlying racial anger and fears in our region without exacerbating negative economic realities? These questions grew out of dynamics we were discovering as we explored the history of public school education in Virginia. When the RCF studied school disciplinary statistics for public schools, we found a significantly higher rate of disciplinary action for low-income and minority youth. Efforts are now being made to reduce out-of-classroom placements and to transition to more restorative disciplinary practices, but it will take decades and funding to re-build skills for individuals who have given up on the public school system.

Wright, Martin. Mobilizing the community for crime prevention.Paper to international conference on ‘The role of community restorative justice centres in the juvenile justice system’, Ukrainian Centre for Common Ground, Kyiv, 19-20 April 2007.

This paper will discuss some of these questions, and suggest the role of restorative justice in answering them. First it will consider restorative approaches in schools and in the community, and their contribution to the reduction of harm. Then it will consider how restorative justice can be used at various stages of the process when harm, or crime, has taken place, and the community’s role in this. Finally it will return to the question of prevention. (excerpt)

Wachtel, Joshua. Toward Peace and Justice in Brazil: Dominic Barter and Restorative Circles.

In 2004 the Brazilian Ministry of Justice received a small UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) grant to launch the country’s first official restorative justice (RJ) pilot projects. Recognizing the unique social context of urban violence in Brazil, the projects brought together school administrators, judges, court workers, prison authorities, social service agencies and local community leaders to create a broad restorative response to the most challenging breakdowns in community safety. While justly known for their creative celebration of life, Brazilians also live with glaring wealth imbalances and the normalization of violence: Murder is the principle cause of death for people under 25. (excerpt)

Schatz, Mona. Vital Voice for Restorative Justice: The Community Members

"This chapter introduces some of the ideas and perceptions of community members who participate in a restorative justice conferencing process in a Colorado community. Some of the information presented emerged from a case study done by the author and graduate social work student (Jaeckel, 2005)." (Abstract)

Rundell, Frida. The Seer’s Eyes: Re-storyng the Umlazi community.

Van Rensburg, a community psychologist states that “ with the growing trend to move toward globalisation of health, health policy, and health care, a set of processes are in place where unprecedented interconnectedness is blurring a variety of boundaries and transforming the nature of human interaction across a wide range of spheres. This in turn, increases economic, political and social interdependence. ( Van Rensburg, 2004). The Umlazi project addresses the opportunity for blurring some of those professional boundaries. It was an opportunity for a tertiary institution, Durban Institute of Technology and a non-profit organisation called Mzamo Guidance Clinic in the Umlazi area to work together in establishing a partially restorative practice. The insight was to promote interconnectedness across health care systems at an early intervention level that did not exist before. (excerpt)

McDonough, Ian. Community Mediation and Community Development In Scotland.

Over 3000 community conflicts in Scotland are resolved through Community Mediation each year. The NGO Sacro has developed a series of manuals for developing a Community Mediation service. The final manual addresses the role of community mediation in fostering community development. In this article, Ian McDonough, mediation adviser for Sacro, provides an overview of the manual with a link to the full-text.

Lustig, Eric A.. The Bhopal Disaster Approaches 25: Looking Back to Look Forward

A discussion of the complexities of reparation in cases of corporate abuse and negligence, particularly illustrated by an event in Bhopal, India, when a Union Carbide plant exploded and severely impacted the slums nearby.

Roche, Declan. Governing ungoverned spaces: the role of one women’s group in Cali, Colombia

In Cali, Colombia, a group of women from the District of Aguablanca is helping to bring peace and justice to one of the country’s poorest and most violent turban areas. Using skills and information disseminated through a network of weekly meetings, local women assist local residents both by providing a range of essential services – from mediation to adult education – and by referring residents to other service providers and resources in the community. This group, which is strikingly community-based, female, well-led, disciplined, and holistic, is now being touted as a model for communities elsewhere in Colombia. Communities, policy-makers and restorative justice advocates – both in Colombia and abroad – can learn much from their approach to restorative justice, and more broadly, from their network-based approach to governing ungoverned spaces. Much of the debate about the conflict in Colombia focuses on national events and neglects the efforts of local communities to nurture peace and justice in their immediate environment. The Aguablanca program demonstrates that local initiatives can make a big difference in the lives of ordinary Colombians. To replicate the success of this program in communities elsewhere, however, it will be necessary to identify local citizens who can provide the same leadership and commitment as the women of Aguablanca. Author’s abstract.

Weil, Marie and Carlton-LaNey, Iris and Macgowan, Mark J and Waites, Cheryl and Pennell, Joan. Increasing the Cultural Responsiveness of Family Group Conferencing

Child welfare struggles to manage child abuse and neglect and to seek permanency for children, while being culturally responsive to the communities it serves. Family group conferencing, piloted in New Zealand and now used in the United States and other countries, is a strengths-based model that brings together families and their support systems to develop and carry out a plan that protects, nurtures, and safeguards children and other family members. This article describes the model and a culturally competent method for assessing and adapting the model for the African American, Cherokee, and Latino/Hispanic communities in North Carolina. Author's abstract.