Theory Articles -- Full List

Articles discussing theoretical issues related to restorative justice.

Bucqueroux, Bonnie. Restorative Community Justice: A Comprehensive Approach to Reducing Crime and Violence in Our Culture

While the United States has made dramatic strides in reducing the crime rate in recent years, the gains have come at the price of the world's highest rate of incarceration and crime rates are still too high and communities continue to suffer. This paper on Building a Restorative Community Justice model offers a vision of an effective alternative to the fragmented criminal and juvenile justice systems of today, as well as a three-phase plan to make this vision a reality: 1) Develop a Restorative Community Justice model - Synthesize the essence of the major criminal and juvenile justice reforms into a comprehensive, system-wide Restorative Community Justice model. 2) Promote learning organizations - Transform police, prosecutors, courts and corrections into Learning organizations that can apply systems thinking to changing times and new challenges. 3) Strengthen Communities - Create capacity within communities so that they become full partners in the process of merging formal and informal social control into a unified, community-based approach. (excerpt)

Burke-White, William W. Regionalization of International Criminal Law Enforcement: A Preliminary Exploration

According to William Burke-White, the enforcement of international criminal law has largely occurred at the supranational level since the 1945 Nuremberg International Military Tribunal. More recently, this enforcement has migrated to the domestic level (compare, e.g., the Special Panels in East Timor or the Special Court for Sierra Leone). All of this has led to the emergence of a system of international criminal law enforcement operating at a variety of levels. Burke-White asserts that a core level of this system -the regional level- remains unexplored and underdeveloped. Hence, in this paper he seeks to fill this void by providing a preliminary consideration of fundamental questions as to whether such regionalization would be useful and achievable.

Burnside, Jonathan. Money Can't Buy Me Love?

Jonathan Burnside begins this article from a foundational perspective that justice must allow for and foster growth, healing, and the possibility of restored relationships. This, he says, is because justice is transformative and not a static state. He points to Marion Correctional Institution (MCI) near Columbus, Ohio, as an example of this. MCI, under the visionary leadership of Warden Christine Money, has created unique relational programs for prisoners and their families, as well as opportunities for outside volunteers who support its work, especially through faith-based initiatives. At MCI , concludes Burnside, relationships are key, and there is punishment with justice.

Buruma, Ybo. Doubts on the Upsurge of the Victim's Role in Criminal Law

As Ybo Buruma points out, a remarkable transformation has occurred in the last two or three decades regarding the way in which the police, judicial authorities, and scientists in many countries think about victims of crime. Significant legal and organizational changes have taken place in favor of the victim. While speculating on many possible causes for this transformation, Buruma in general terms connects new perspectives on victims to a longstanding crisis regarding the meaning and justification of criminal law and punishment. With this mind, he inquires in this essay whether restorative justice and strengthening of victims' rights are actually answers to this crisis. Toward this end, Buruma distinguishes between restorative justice and victim-oriented criminal law. He then applies this distinction in comparing ways to respond to severe, ordinary, and minor criminal cases.

Buti, Antonio. Reparations, justice theories and Stolen Generations.

Reparation measures for historical injustices have generated debate and criticism. This article explores the theoretical underpinnings for the awarding of reparations particularly in relation to the 'Stolen Generations'. The author argues that restorative justice theory has the most to offer but that the majority of reparation measures by the Australian government (both the Howard and Rudd governments) for the Stolen Generations have been framed in distributive justice terms. (author's abstract)

Cameron, Angela. Sentencing Circles and Intimate Violence: A Canadian feminist Perspective.

Advocates of restorative justice claim that these models can benefit offenders, victims, and communities and also address historical injustices perpetrated against Aboriginal peoples. These claims extend to cases of intimate violence. In the case of judicially convened sentencing circles in cases of intimate violence in Canada, these claims have not been born out. In fact, by measuring the outcomes in these cases against recent studies of bettered women's needs, these models, as they are currently constituted, have inadequately addressed social injustice and inequality experienced by women within Canadian Aboriginal communities, and in some instances, have revictimized survivors of intimate violence. (author's abstract)

Cario, Robert. Le débat sur la justice restaurative

Une synthèse de la session de formation continue "La justice en perspectives", organisée par l'Ecole nationale de la magistrature et dirigée par Jean-Paul Jean, directeur de la Mission de recherche Droit et Justice en France.

Carruthers, David. Restorative Justice: A Judicial Perspective.

This document represents an address by David Carruthers, Chief District Court Judge of New Zealand, at the 2005 annual conference of Sacro. "Sacro" stands for "Safeguarding Communities – Reducing Offending." Sacro is an organization aiming to promote community safety in Scotland through high quality services to reduce conflict and offending. From his perspective and experience as a judge, Carruthers reflects on restorative justice theory and practice in general, restorative justice in New Zealand (history and development of restorative justice in youth and adult settings, and the practice of restorative justice), and some common criticisms of restorative justice.

Carter, Rod. Restorative Justice-Working Toward Healing, Peace, and Forgiveness

Rod Carter brings to this article on restorative justice and its benefits his own unique experience. He has been an inmate; he is now an ordained minister in Canada. He has been a prison chaplain, and he currently teaches in the Restorative Justice Program at Queen’s Theological College in Kingston, Ontario. He relates his own personal journey as well as his understanding of restorative justice in relation to healing, peace, and forgiveness. He shares from his personal experience because he believes that a correctional system driven only by statistics and research eventually fails in that it ends up ignoring offender, victim, and community members as people. On these bases, he discusses principles and aims of restorative justice and explores the personal perspectives of the offender, the victim, and community members.

Cavallaro, James L.. Looking Backward to Address the Future? Transitional Justice, Rising Crime, and Nation-Building

The author proposes that the greatest threat to internal stability is not terrorism but non-political violent crime or so-called "street violence." He argues then that nations in the state of transition to democracy ought to spend more of their resources developing measures that cope with an increase in street violence rather than on focusing solely on redressing the institutionalized violence of the previous government.

Chapman, Laura A. Beyond crime and punishment

Issues of crime and public safety directly affect people, and increasing globalization means that such issues will become more varied – so writes Laura Chapman, Executive Director of the Policy Research Secretariat (Canada). Examples of new crime and public safety concerns include computer hacking, international corruption, and international terrorism. Chapman argues societies must address root causes of criminal activity to enhance citizens’ confidence, trust, and safety. The complexity of threats requires strategic research and alternative crime prevention approaches.

Chuen-Jim Sheu and Shu-Wen You and Cheng-Sheng Kao and Su-Hui Chang and Ching-Ming Chang and Yu-Shu Chen. A study on the content of Atayal traditional concepts of justice.

Aboriginal literature have shown that aboriginals around the world usually possess particular cultures, and used religion or tribal leaders to peacefully resolve conflicts or crime. Braithwaite (1999) pointed out that, we ought to use restorative justice model first to deal with crime, and then we can reduce the need to use punitive or incapacitation justice model. There are two purposes for this study: to investigate the content of Atayal traditional justice concept and to compare it with other justice models. This study used in-depth interview to collect data. Data were collected from 8 mediators or pastors or Atayal police officials working in Atayal communities. Data analysis indicates that there is no concept of “crime” in the Atayal tradition, instead a “wrong” in used. It is also found that the traditional Atayal justice is deeply influenced by the Atayal belief system of Gaga that there should be social harmony, redemption and pursuit of absolute good in the handling of crime. This study also found that there is no punitive element in Atayal concept of justice. The Atayal traditional concept of justice is partially related to Reparatory Justice and Blood Feud model. However, the Atayal traditional concept of justice is highly related to the Restorative Justice. (authors' abstract).

Church Council on Justice and Corrections. Justice for the soul: Shaming

As indicated in this article by the Church Council on Justice and Corrections (a coalition of faith-based individuals and organizations involved in oversight of the Canadian justice and corrections system), shame is something we all have likely felt at one time or another in life. For example, shame can result from embarrassing incidents in life, or from unkind comments directed at us by others. This is not the kind of shame or shaming promoted in certain restorative justice approaches, including conferencing. This article goes on to explain a restorative approach known as positive or reintegrative shaming - oriented around condemning an action but seeking to reintegrate the wrongdoer back into the community - and its use in conferencing processes.

Claassen, Ron. "The J Scale: Measuring Restorative Justice."

This is one in a series of papers on basic principles of restorative justice. Noting and applauding a growing interest in restorative justice, Claassen cautions that the words may be used to describe many things that, in actions and outcomes, are not in fact restorative. Therefore, he provides a table with some continuums that can be helpful in evaluating and measuring actions and outcomes to determine if justice processes are actually implementing restorative justice.

Claassen, Ron. "The Myth of Redemptive Violence: Restorative Justice Challenges the 'Myth of Redemptive Violence

This is one in a series of papers on basic principles of restorative justice. In it Claassen refers to Walter Wink's assertion that our society's preferred response to violence is vengeance, which Wink labels as the "myth of redemptive violence" - the belief that violence is a necessary and appropriate response, and even healing for the victim, especially when administered by the state on a victim's behalf. Against this, Wink points out that Jesus rejected violence as a constructive way of responding to a wrong or injustice, and Wink helps us to understand that there are alternatives to violence

Claassen, Ron. "What Is Forgiveness?"

This is one in a series of papers on basic principles of restorative justice. Claassen claims that the biblical notion of forgiveness, which is a process, involves three key elements: recognizing the injustice (confession); restoring the equity (atonement); and clarifying future intentions (repentance).

Claassen, Ron. "What Is Restorative Justice? Restorative Justice 1.

This is the first in a series of papers on basic principles of restorative justice. In this the author asks whether "criminal justice system" is a good name. Does it describe the primary actors? Is it descriptive of what people do? He contends that the name is a problem - it is not helpful, and it is confusing. He then proposes that we change from "criminal justice system" to "restorative justice system" to clarify the purpose of the system, how it should operate, and provide a measure for its success.

Claassen, Ron. Accountability and Restorative Justice

This is one in a series of papers on basic principles of restorative justice. Claassen remarks that everyone agrees accountability is a central component in reducing crime, but people often mean different things. To help determine the meaning, he lists several criteria that indicate an offender is held accountable and accepts responsibility. Claassen also outlines an accountability process.

Claassen, Ron. Restorative Justice - Fundamental Principles

As revised May 1996 at the UN Alliance of NGOs Working Party on Restorative Justice, this page presents 11 principles of restorative justice as identified by the author. It summarizes his longer descriptions in other sources, such as the 1995 July-November issue of VORP News, and his paper presented at the National Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution in 1995.

Claassen, Ron. Restorative Justice Principles

In a series of five articles, Claassen presents the 11 principles of restorative justice. According to the author, restorative justice primarily focuses on people, not procedures; crime is wrong; official actions should be reasonable, restorative, respectful; and the faith community can play important healing roles in response to crime.