Restorative Justice: Practice and Theory

The apology-forgiveness cycle is a simple but powerful process for conflict resolution. Given the prevalence of apology and forgiveness in restorative justice (RJ), the apology-forgiveness cycle may take place. However, there is a lack of a theoretical understanding of the relationship between apology and forgiveness in the RJ processes. After identifying key elements and impediments of the apologyforgiveness cycle during RJ meetings based on existing literature, we develop a theoretical model of the apology-forgiveness cycle during RJ encounters. This typology explains how the apologyforgiveness cycle is intertwined with the RJ process, subsequently facilitating, blocking, and changing its sequence. There are four cycles: (1) apology facilitating forgiveness, (2) apology without forgiveness, (3) forgiveness promoting apology, and (4) forgiveness without apology. We conclude by offering future directions for research on the apology-forgiveness cycle in RJ.

Formal criminal justice systems worldwide have been increasingly incorporating restorative justice. As such, it is important to consider the state of knowledge on restorative justice, reflecting on that which is known and that which remains largely unknown. This chapter provides an overview of the academic literature associated with restorative justice to date, including: how restorative procedures differ from court-based justice responses; empirical research assessing restorative interventions; and theoretical explanations of the effects of restorative justice relative to court-based models. The latter part of the chapter is dedicated to the importance of better understanding public perceptions of appropriate justice. We draw attention to the discrepancy between legal and lay notions of justice; specifically, that legal notions of justice revolve around deliberative information processing, whereas lay notions of justice often stem from intuitive responses leading to retributive impulses. We argue that laypersons' retributive motivations present a challenge to restorative justice, but that psychological research devoted to better understanding lay decision-making and justice heuristics offers a means to advance the long-term viability of restorative procedures. We conclude by suggesting more focused research directions that would progress the current state of knowledge, highlighting the value of experimental methods in this area of research.

How is it possible to create more just forms of peace in our world? This article responds
to calls for a feminist theory/peace studies collaboration by integrating work on feminist
care ethics and conflict transformation. We propose that justpeace is possible by
strengthening ways of knowing which sustainably weave together understandings of “self”
and “other” to support relationships of care over dehumanization and violence. Building
on Sara Ruddick’s work, we argue that her “maternal thinking” can be understood as a
feminist “weaving” epistemology or flexible way of knowing that promotes meaningful
inclusion, symmetrical power relations, and positive peace through three major
practices: (1) living with dissonance, (2) creatively overcoming disconnects between the
interests of the self and the other, and (3) bridging practical goals for surviving the
present with more idealistic goals for best practices in the future. As such, it provides an
alternative to “othering” practices at individual, national, and international levels which
reinforce asymmetrical power relations, strengthen unjust social, economic and political
structures, and support violent conflict. In conclusion, we illustrate how this weaving
epistemology supports human rights practices promoting people over profit, equality
over discrimination and violence, and restorative rather than retributive forms of conflict
transformation.

The restorative justice movement has great potential to reform the way society responds to crime and wrongdoing. One might logically assume that the greatest challenge to the new restorative justice paradigm is the traditional punitive criminal justice paradigm itself. A more immediate threat, however, is posed by merging community justice, another approach to reforming the justice system, with restorative justice. Community justice has superficial similarities to restorative justice but relies on the underlying authoritarian assumptions of the existing criminal justice system and on processes that exclude most of those individuals directly affected by the offense. This paper clarifies and contrasts the key elements of both the restorative justice and the community justice paradigms and explains the threat to restorative justice posed by combining and confusing the two.

Mass incarceration entrenches racial and class inequality and segregation. Before, during, and after low-income people of color enter prison, they experience a range of barriers and biases that make it difficult to break out of the prison pipeline. This article investigates food justice and restorative justice activists in Oakland, California who are intervening at the point of reentry. I argue for the significance of teasing out the connections between food and carceral politics as a way to expand the practice and understanding of food justice. Specifically, I show how the incarcerated geographies of former prisoners, that is, perspectives and experiences that result due to the prison pipeline, motivate the formation of a restorative food justice. The associated healing and mutual aid practices increase social equity by creating spaces to overcome the historical trauma of mass incarceration, produce living wage jobs, rearticulate relationships to food and land, and achieve policy reforms.

Students face innumerable stressors, in and outside of schools. Some schools are better able to support students to thrive, individually and collectively, in the midst of these stressors. Drawing on a qualitative case study of a restorative justice approach in a Canadian primary school, this article explores the role of restorative justice in facilitating student well-being. To interpret this research, I mobilize Antonovsky’s (Health, stress and coping. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1979) “sense of coherence” concept: individuals are most likely to thrive when they perceive their lives as comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. Based on the data, I argue that the Canadian school’s restorative justice policies and practices helped students make sense of complexity within their school lives, building within them a strong sense of individual and collective coherence.

A systematic effort to answer in what ways and contexts the claims of restorative justice (RJ) prove persuasive is lacking. We address this gap through a metasynthesis of qualitative studies. Drawing on 26 studies identified through the systematic literature search, we identified three overarching themes to understand "how RJ works": (1) opportunities for humanization, learning, and putting emotions of victims and individuals who committed a crime at the center of conflict-solving, (2) support networks and mechanisms for communication, and (3) life-changing journey enshrined in healing. We develop a line of argument showing how the micro-, meso-, and macro-elements of RJ interact with each other. While offering reflections on the limitations of existing literature around this key issue, we conclude with implications for advancing research of RJ.

Restorative justice (RJ) has become increasingly accepted in schools worldwide as an effective way to build, maintain and repair student relationships and to deal with student conflict, harm and behavioural issues. It is rare, however, to find schools that utilise RJ to deal with adult relational and behavioural issues. Drawing on a case study in a Canadian school, this paper explores this hypocritical application of RJ, when teachers are not called to practice what they are teaching. The teachers in the school studied named the hypocritical application and openly struggled with it. I argue that the act of grappling with the inequity resulted in a deepened experience of RJ for both teachers and students. By naming and addressing their hypocritical actions, the teachers, paradoxically, acted in a restorative manner, modelling restorative principles and ensuring that RJ was made more comprehensible and relevant to students.

As data against the utility of exclusionary school discipline mounts, school districts are increasingly turning toward restorative justice as an alternative response to conflicts and rule violations. In this chapter, the author’s place this recent restorative movement into a broader historical context, describe the principles that guide the movement, and make visible the many challenges of school implementation, including getting buy-in, building the necessary infrastructure, and navigating the various power dynamics likely to be present along the way. The chapter concludes with “realistic expectations” based on both the author’s work with schools and the relevant literature examining the implementation process.

Gellin M. 2018. Mediation has been offered as an alternative and restorative conflict management practice for intervention of misbehaviour and bullying since 2001. I present participation and learning approaches along with relevant literature as this
constitutes the basis for the development and implementation of school mediation programmes. In the article, I also discuss how misbehaviour and bullying can be prevented by improving social skills and pupil participation in school with a restorative approach and mediation. In the last part of the article, I describe mediation practices in Finnish schools and present the latest statistics on school mediation training, the use of school mediation and surveys on user satisfaction. In conclusion,
I discuss the impact of mediation and restorative practices. The article is connected to the discourse in the field of education about increasing pupil participation and strengthening children’s rights by implementing child-friendly methods to conflict management in schools.

A restorative approach to conflict is being increasingly applied in schools around the world. Existing evaluation evidence has tended to focus on the impact on quantifiable outcomes such as number of behaviour incidents and rates of attendance and exclusion. This case study aimed to broaden the evidence base to capture a richer picture of the implementation and impact of restorative approaches (RA) from the perspective of a selection of staff in one inner-London primary school. The study adopted appreciative inquiry as the evaluation methodology in order to engage the participants in a meaningful and educative evaluation process. The staff reported with honesty and insight on the complexities of adopting restorative practice (RP) in their busy and demanding work context. They identified when, how and why RP works well at their school. The outcomes reported include the impact of RA on climate for learning, life skills, emotional literacy, behaviour and relationships more broadly, and more specifically the impact on speaking, listening, thinking and conflict resolution skills. They equally reported on when and why it is not always either possible or appropriate to engage in a restorative response to conflict. The findings of this evaluation highlight the importance of congruence between the values, practice and outcomes, and between different members of the school community. The findings are discussed in relation to other evaluation reports and also in terms of their implications for restorative practitioners and researchers.

Following fierce campaigning by victims’ groups, the European Commission has entered into a process of legislative and policy reforms with the aim of repositioning the victim in criminal proceedings. By November 2015, member states will need to have demonstrated that they have modified their domestic laws to give effect to the Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support, and protection of victims of crime. For the first time, restorative justice is explicitly regulated at EU legal level, as the Directive aims to establish a baseline for its safe implementation across member states. With this EU-wide policy backdrop and using original data, the article posits evidence-based recommendations for the implementation of the Directive. The research was carried out in 2013-14 as part of the “Restorative Justice in Europe” project co-financed by the European Commission. The research took place in the United Kingdom and combined desk research and qualitative research strategies with victims, while it triangulated its findings with follow-up surveys with offenders and professionals.

This paper engages the efforts to develop a mid-range theory to complete the vaguely defined paradigm of restorative justice. Advocates of the Maximalist model have been critical of a voluntary process-based definition and proposed a more expansive definition. An analysis of stakeholders needs is proposed as a theoretical structure to evaluate the restorativeness of different models. A Purist model of restorative justice based on a voluntary cooperative approach is proposed, which is shown to be holistic in response to stakeholders needs. The author defends the ‘diversionist perspective’ and the process definition of restorative justice. The Maximalist model’s assumed roles for community and society as direct stakeholders is shown to incorporate both retribution and treatment goals. The cornerstone of the Maximalist model, court-imposed ‘restorative sanctions’, is criticized as a non-restorative practice. A three-fold typology of restorative practices based upon victim reparation, offender responsibility, and communities-of-care reconciliation is proposed which places the Purist model within a holistic approach and distinguishes fully restorative from partly restorative practices.

Violence against women (VAW) has slowly found its place in many international policies and conventions. The objectives, enforceability and foci of these international initiatives vary depending on a number of factors including political, sociological, economical and legal. However, they share one common feature. They are all based on the legal positivistic understanding of delivering justice. This chapter accepts this understanding and moves on to argue that what is also undeniable is that justice has a normative concept that is universal truth. The chapter proceeds to illustrate that Restorative Justice (RJ) outside the law has, is and will continue to manifest itself even for VAW cases. Ultimately, the chapter aims to contribute to the book’s general objective of advancing the multi dimensional growth of therapeutic jurisprudence with a gender sensitive and gender focused approach.

Research in schools, conducted with students as participants, often attempts to understand the student experience. Yet, by crafting the study through adult eyes, researchers run the risk of limiting and influencing what students tell us (Dockrell, Lewis & Lindsay, 2000). This article explores what happens when university researchers intentionally engage with students as co-researchers, an engagement that affects both the product and the process of research. As product, the research community gains a crucial
layer of perspective in understanding the complexities of school; as process, the research becomes an important pedagogical tool for students, validating their roles as researchers of their own realities.
Keywords: collaborative inquiry, pedagogy, qualitative research,
education, co-researchers, restorative approaches,
Scotland, Canada

This chapter places restorative approaches in schools within the context of the punitive turn in youth justice. It argues that the implementation of RAiS may be limited by resistant and punitive mentalities of staff echoing the wider, punitive political climate. The chapter is based on research examining how RAiS was implemented in four schools in South Bristol, as well as how and whether RAiS impacted on the climate for learning, attendance, fixed-term exclusions and educational attainment. Thirty-four interviews were conducted with staff and twenty six with pupils. Local authority data from before and after the implementation of RAiS were used to analyse pupils’ attendance, exclusions and attainment rates. The research found variations of the co-existence of traditional punitive school discipline and RAs in the schools. Advocates described how it was hard to shift the punitive mentalities of some staff perhaps because of a wider social context which permits/encourages these mentalities. Notwithstanding these limitations, the restorative approaches adopted improved the climate for learning in numerous ways. RAs encouraged a fairer approach to dealing with bad behaviour, improved the emotional literacy, communication skills, sense of well being and relationships of pupils and staff, and improved the overall atmosphere in the schools. There was also evidence that RAs contributed to improved attendance rates, less bullying and a reduction in fixed term exclusions. Thus, if successfully implemented, the transformative and preventative potential of restorative approaches could actually help to counteract and mitigate against the punitive trend in youth justice.

Advancements  in  computer  systems  and  technologies  have
revolutionized the field of dentistry as well. These advancements
can be seen with the introduction and evolution of CAD/CAM
systems. The demand for such systems has grown dramatically
over the past decade and a large variety of different CAD/CAM
systems have been developed and marketed. The popularity of
these systems can be attributed to their efficiency of designing,
manufacturing and precision.

In this article I explore the concept of accountability for young people in youth restorative conferencing. Definitions of accountability in research and programme literature demonstrate significant variation between expectations of young people to admit harms, make amends, address the causes of their offending, and desist from future offending. Such variation is problematic in terms of aligning conferenc-ing goals with accountability expectations. I first draw from research that suggests appeals to normative frameworks such as accountability may not be useful for some young people with significant histories of victimisation, abuse, neglect, and trauma. I then examine problems in accountability for young people that are highly marginalised or 'redundant' in terms of systemic exclusion from economic and social forms of capital. These two issues-trauma on the micro level and social marginalisation on the macro level-suggest problems of getting to accountability for some young people. I also argue trauma and social marginalisation present specific problems for thinking about young offenders as 'moral subjects' and conferenc-ing as an effective mechanism of moralising social control. I conclude by suggesting a clear distinction between accountability and responsibility is necessary to disentangle the conflation of misdeeds from the acute social, psychological, and developmental needs of some young offenders.

The increasing lack of discipline in South African schools and the impact thereof is well known. In most instances, existing punitive measures do not yield the required results. Yet, schools continue to scramble to find alternative punishments that will result in a disciplined environment conducive to teaching and learning. Albert Einstein rightly said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results." This book seeks to provide an alternative approach to discipline. However, to implement this approach, a complete mind-shift is required. This mind set requires an understanding that to discipline learners is to teach socially acceptable behaviour. The restorative approach entails moving away from an approach that merely focuses on the ill-disciplined learner to an approach that focuses on preventing disciplinary problems, changing the culture of the school and restoring the harm done to those affected by the misconduct. The restorative approach involves focusing on finding solutions to address the needs and interests of all the role-players in the school community, rather than finding suitable punishments. Thus, focusing on the best interests of every learner and the interests of educators. Restorative discipline is a value-driven approach that respects the human rights of every stakeholder and also protects, promotes and fulfils everyone's human rights. The restorative approach to discipline is explained in detail. The role of every stakeholder in the implementation of this approach also receives attention. The social justice implications are

This article explores public perceptions of restorative justice through the examination of media articles and negative online reader comments surrounding a high-profile incident in a Canadian university in which a restorative process was successfully engaged. Utilising relational discourse analysis, we identify how restorative justice is presented in the media and how that presentation is taken up by the public. Media representations of restorative justice create understandings among the public that are profoundly different from how many restorative justice advocates perceive it. The aim of this article is to examine media representations of restorative justice and how these are received by the public so that we can respond constructively .

Veling's work is a meditative exploration of the relationship between justice and mercy. While it recognises the importance of social justice - as a mutual indebtedness - it argues that without social mercy, even justice itself cannot save us. Mercy is not the opposite or complement of justice, but its very condition.
Preview available here: http://wipfandstock.com/the-beatitude-of-mercy.html

This book addresses the relationship between restorative justice and children's rights, an issue of increasing relevance to restorative justice theory and practice that has thus far received relatively little attention. Readers will find useful reviews of international human rights documents and of legislation, policy and practices in countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, North America, and Oceania. Each of the chapters demonstrates the compatibility between children's rights and restorative justice. Adopting a rights-based approach is an important means for countries that are interested in further developing restorative justice practices, as it helps restorative processes that are new to the juvenile justice system to gain credibility as well as safeguard young participants' rights in these processes. In countries where restorative justice has been developed, a rights approach can stimulate innovation and applications beyond the child justice system. The book focuses on both needs and rights of children and young people who caused harm or suffered harm. Some chapters also adopt a critical point of view to explore the tensions between rights and restorative justice in relation to colonisation, welfare models, and professional privilege.

The young offenders' justice system in Nigeria represents an area where the law has failed to respond properly to the needs it was designed for. Many empirical studies conducted over 17 years show that young offenders in Nigeria are continuously subjected to the state-sanctioned processes and practices-the formal justice system-which goes against the best interest of the child principle. This is despite the fact that Nigeria has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and domesticated it through the Child's Rights Act 2003 (CRA). The problem is that the diversion policy framework under the CRA offers discretionary powers to state officials who drive the formal justice system. This allows these officials to choose whether to divert cases and to select which restorative justice mechanisms to divert to at any level of the young offenders' justice system. This paper argues that taking away such discretionary powers can help to improve the treatment of young offenders under the Nigerian criminal justice system. Drawing lessons from New Zealand, this paper suggests, among others, a mandatory diversion policy for a committed practice of juvenile restorative justice in Nigeria.

Artigo publicado na Revista Juris Poiesis, vinculada ao Programa de Pós-Graduação Stricto Sensu em Direito da Universidade Estácio de Sá (PPGD/UNESA), em abr/2021.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo levantar reflexões críticas acerca da aplicação da justiça restaurativa em crimes de violência doméstica contra as mulheres, importando-nos questionar os riscos e desafios das principais experiências em curso no Brasil. Para tanto, foram realizadas revisão bibliográfica, privilegiando a teoria crítica da justiça restaurativa; análise documental de dados oficiais sobre a implementação e avaliação dos Programas brasileiros, e análise de resultados de estudos de casos efetuados no âmbito de três Juizados de Violência Doméstica no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Concluímos preliminarmente que as práticas, quando conduzidas sem observância dos valores e princípios da justiça restaurativa, apresentam riscos às partes envolvidas, pois violam direitos e garantias dos acusados e vinculam as vítimas ao resultado dos processos restaurativos, de forma a reproduzir violências estruturais e servindo para manutenção de opressões sistemáticas. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Justiça restaurativa; violência doméstica; justiça para as mulheres.

GHIRINGHELLI, Rodrigo Azevedo de; SANTOS, Michelle Karen Batista dos. Justiça restaurativa em crimes de violência doméstica contra as mulheres: limites e desafios das experiências brasileiras. Revista Juris Poiesis, Rio de Janeiro. v. 24, n. 34, p. 750-777, 2021. ISSN 2448-0517
Disponível em: http://periodicos.estacio.br/index.php/jurispoiesis/index

This paper is giving an overview of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa through a thesis of congruence between its protocols and elements of theatrical performance. After an introductory survey of the historical context of apartheid, it offers an analysis of TRC’s work through two roles it had – the role of a legal instrument, and the one of a tool for facing the past and producing the national historical narrative.

This paper analyses the relation between theatrical and performative characteristics, and concepts of transitional and restorative justice; the influence of elements of performance is also studied in TRC’s effect on creating national narratives, which are used to legitimate new legal and political order.

While many empirical studies on restorative justice conferencing have been conducted in the context of ‘what works’, research on ‘how it works’ is scarce. Little is known about how, in what conditions and for whom restorative justice conferencing ‘works’. In this article, I aim to fill this gap in the literature by developing a concept of readiness. It refers to participants’ attitudes and emotional dispositions towards, and knowledge about, restorative justice conferencing and the other parties prior to the face-to-face dialogue process. I suggest that the concept of readiness may be a key independent variable to understand how restorative justice conferencing works because it reminds us that a restorative journey may begin before a face-to-face dialogue between participants take places. This article concludes by offering how it can be used in research on restorative justice conferencing.

The current restorative justice theory dwells theoretically outside the penal proceeding or penal court in order to mediate a resolution between the victim and the offender; and sometimes with each representatives and/or wider community as well, as such the modern restorative justice becomes the based theory for Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) or Penal Mediation. But the traditional restorative justice did not show the outside the court proceeding such as the modern theory has. While studying and building a recommendation for a sentencing guideline theory that can provide justice, deterrent effect, and possibly effectively achieving Criminal Justice's goals; it is found that the traditional Restorative Justice model is the key in building a Criminal Justice System that is just, deterrent, and yet humane and merciful. Adopting the traditional way of Restorative Justice, while still taking the best part of the modern one, can be what is needed in answering the current conditions of criminal justice system in Indonesia; and possibly elsewhere, that is full of outcry of injustice, increasing crimes, heavy economic burden in enforcing the law, and repeating crimes. Built by adopting the same principle of God's Law in Karmic Law, and using a framework which is derived from Indonesian Ideology; Pancasila (The 5 Values), which could be generalized into one basic value that is " equilibrium of values " 1, this paper describes a Restorative Justice based model in a Sentencing Reform. Thus is argued that; if adopted, will create a ripple of positive changes in Sentencing Guideline theory and/or its implementation. Restorative Justice-based Penal Code and Criminal Justice Reform that can provide the foundation toward a criminal justice system that is humane but decisive and definite; and therefore will achieve justice: a Criminal Justice Reform that is just and oriented humanely to the perpetrator, the victim, and the state (In Dutch can be called: Dader-slachtoffer-staat Straftrecht).

Restorative justice has been part of Jewish and Christian scriptures and praxis for thousands of years. Over most of this history, restorative practices were applied when one or more members of a specific faith community were found to be in theological or moral error and wished to be restored to full participation in the community. However, restorative praxis has not generally been applied to internal faith community conflicts except in certain groups with peace traditions such as Amish, Mennonite and Bruderhof. This paper briefly describes a restorative process model focusing on interpersonal forgiveness and reconciliation based on Christian scripture, research studies, and facilitative best practices.

Historical Trauma scholarship in the last decade has focused on indigenous groups, particularly in the Americas. Even a quick glance at health disparities and high suicide rates on reservations in the United States (US), and at high rates of poverty and violence of first nations people in Canada, seems to illustrate a larger problem; this problem stems from past trauma. Nevertheless, delving into the history of many marginalized groups in post-colonial societies as well as the developed world one would be hard pressed not to find a group with a historic traumatic event, one that has resulted in the transmission of the pain of that experience through numerous generations and has been maintained via oppressive structures. However, in fields of conflict resolution, trauma, justice, and development, historical trauma is a concept more often than not unknown or ignored. How can something so important be so dismissed within academia?

This paper brings historical trauma to the forefront in order to elevate voices writing about historical trauma within their communities, and to increase the visibility of a concept that must be understood if there is hope for change globally. Through section I, the authors will cite historical trauma scholars (often members of groups experiencing historical trauma themselves) to explore what historical trauma is on the theoretical level as well as the ways it manifests in the physical, mental, and emotional health of communities who experience the pain of the past in their present life. Various aspects of historical trauma will be examined, including the collective nature of historical trauma, the intergenerational transmission, and the mechanisms of transmission. In section II, the authors will explore the intensifying, problematic effects that power dynamics have on historical trauma and the groups who carry it, further justifying the elevation of the concept of historical trauma. Finally, in section III, the case will be made for group-defined collective healing practices.

The restorative practice to healing the effects of everyday dissension, conflict and crime promises a refreshing approach to addressing the transgressions of societal norms. Similarly, the restorative justice approach, with its focus on helping victims, offenders and others affected by the impact of the offending action, lends support to everyday restorative practices. Both approaches, which have been in the spotlight in post-apartheid South Africa in recent years, are supported by legislation such as the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 which places emphasis on early intervention strategies in line with international best practices.
This study explores the practice of restorative justice from the perspective of child and youth care workers working with young people awaiting trial. A qualitative methodology was used to explore their experiences as child and youth care students, and as practitioners in secure care centres and in places of safety within the provinces of KwaZulu/Natal and Gauteng, South Africa.
Child and youth care workers are well placed to offer skilled interventions within the therapeutic milieu. Therefore this research offers to expand the restorative model of child and youth care practice with awaiting trial youth beyond the context of residential care.
KEY WORDS
Child and Youth Care; Child Justice Act 75 of 2008; Community-based programmes; Context in child and youth care; Daily events; Restorative Justice; Restorative Practices; Secure Care; Therapeutic Milieu; Youth awaiting trial.

In this study a component of long-term peacebuilding practice - restorative justice
processing - was examined in South Africa’s unequal, transitional context. Based on
multidisciplinary literature, Galtung’s (1996) notion of cultural-structural-direct violence,
Cohen’s (2001) theory of denial, and empirical data, a conceptual argument was made
that a conspiracy of silence (cultural violence) exists about the interaction of growing
inequality (structural violence) and the levels of crime/social harm (direct violence).
Victim offender mediation, as a form of restorative justice processing, was an embedded,
(Yin, 1994) instrumental (Stake,1995) case which provided micro level information about
peacebuilding practice. Peace studies was chosen as the core discipline in this multiperspectival
study, as it allowed micro-macro linkages to be made deductively and
inductively. Empirical data was generated by a 360° formation of six sub-units comprised
of victims, offenders, practitioners, prosecutors, key experts, a Norwegian external subunit
(which provided a keyhole comparison of activities inside the ‘black box’ of victim
offender mediation), and observation.
The research discovered four interlinked gaps in restorative justice processing. These
gaps are contextual, conceptual, training and practice related. Patterns of denial - that
manifested as procedural blindness, substantive deafness and a complicit silence about
the interaction of cultural, structural and direct violence - resulted from the combined
effects of these interlinked gaps. Recommendations for education, training and coaching,
based on the conceptual argument and comprehensive model of findings, were developed
to fill the interlinked gaps, so that restorative justice practitioners can be better placed to
contribute to long-term peacebuilding in a structurally responsive way. A caveat applies:
ultimately, society and individuals must change and restorative justice processing on its
own can only take society part of the way towards social justice.

A presente dissertação analisa o papel da Justiça Restaurativa na atualidade, tratando de situar o seu lugar no debate sociológico, inaugurado por Ferdinand Tönnies, que identifica na "comunidade" e na "sociedade" duas formas de sociabilidade distintas. A hipótese de que partimos é a de que, a despeito de ser celebrada como uma panacéia para os males do sistema de justiça criminal tradicional, a Justiça Restaurativa, por evocar um ideal de comunidade de difícil materialização nos dias de hoje, talvez não seja apropriada no contexto das sociedades modernas. Para verificá-la, empreendemos uma revisão da literatura que examina as características e as conseqüências sociais do processo de modernização, com foco nas obras de Anthony Giddens e Zygmunt Bauman. A partir delas, oferecemos um diagnóstico que retrata como a transição de uma modernidade simples para uma modernidade reflexiva acirrou, nas últimas décadas, a sensação de insegurança e transformou o ideal comunitário, que anima a Justiça Restaurativa, em um refúgio para a inconstância da vida moderna. A seguir, descrevemos o desenvolvimento teórico e prático da Justiça Restaurativa e, com o fim de verificar nossa hipótese empiricamente, realizamos um estudo de caso, examinando em profundidade dois conflitos encaminhados ao Programa-Piloto de Justiça Restaurativa dos Juizados Especiais Criminais do Núcleo Bandeirante, localizado nos arredores de Brasília, no Distrito Federal. Concluímos, enfim, que a Justiça Restaurativa, por mobilizar emoções íntimas, funciona bem quando aplicada a conflitos penais protagonizados por pessoas próximas, vinculadas por laços de tipo comunitário. No entanto, quando se trata de conflitos envolvendo estranhos, típicos da modernidade, a estratégia restaurativa tende a ser mal-sucedida. Portanto, do mesmo modo que, no presente, a comunidade é incapaz de substituir a sociedade, uma Justiça Restaurativa atrelada a ideais comunitários não será capaz de alterar significativamente o esquema de funcionamento de um sistema de justiça criminal criado de acordo com as particularidades das sociedades modernas. Palavras-chave: Justiça Restaurativa; justiça criminal; justiça comunitária; modernidade reflexiva; formas alternativas de solução de conflitos penais.

Executive Summary of the Fall 2013 Research Report
• While DPS student enrollment has increased over the past four years, the use of out of school suspensions and expulsions has decreased. This trend has benefited students of all backgrounds.
• Despite these reductions, district-wide racial disparities in rates of office disciplinary referrals, suspension and referral to law enforcement persist, and in some cases, have worsened.  After accounting for student characteristics like gender, disability and family income, DPS data show that race still matters in school discipline practices. Black and Latino students in particular are more likely than White or Asian students to be suspended from school and referred to law enforcement for the same behavior.
• The effect of race decreases throughout the discipline process: race has the strongest effect on office disciplinary referrals and has no independent influence on expulsion decisions.
• Over the last four years, high school administrators at the aggregate level have eliminated the influence of race on their decisions to suspend a student once they are referred to the office.  This is a remarkable achievement; however, disproportionalities in suspension will persist until race no longer predicts who is sent to the office.  In contrast, middle schools have seen a decline in the influence of gender and socioeconomic status on administrators’ decisions about discipline resolutions, but racial disparities have worsened over time.  At the elementary level, no clear trends are evident.
• The therapeutic and restorative approaches outlined by JK-R are promising strategies to manage student behavior problems and keep youth in school.  In DPS, students with behavior problems are significantly less likely to experience an out of school suspension if they receive these interventions after being referred to the office.

Implications & Recommendations
1. Prevention efforts in the classroom, not only at the administrative level, will be necessary to eliminate disparities and reduce suspensions.  Teachers need training in culturally responsive, classroom-based behavioral interventions that prevent office referrals for Black, Latino, and male students in particular.
2. Our analyses provide robust evidence that restorative approaches (RA) and in-school suspensions are effective alternatives to out of school suspension. Additional resources, such as RA coordinators and counselors for ISS rooms are needed to implement these interventions widely.

In recent years, there has been increasing scientific research on possible genetic or heritable influences to the etiology of pedophilia, driven by national and public concerns about better understanding the disorder in order to reduce children’s vulnerabilities to pedophilic and child sex offenders. This research has corresponded to growing academic dialogue on how advances in genetic research, especially concerning the causes and development of particular mental disorders or behaviors, may affect traditional practices of criminal law and how the justice system views, manages, and adjudicates different types of criminal behavior and offenders. This paper strives to supplement this dialogue by exploring several of the many possible effects and implications of research surrounding genetic or heritable contributions to pedophilia for the five widely accepted objectives that enforce and regulate the punishment of criminal law. These include retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and restoration. Although still currently in early stages, genetic and heritability research on the etiology of pedophilia may have the potential moving forward to influence the current and established punitive methods and strategies of how the justice system perceives, adjudicates, regulates, and punishes pedophilic and sex offenders, as well as how to best prevent sexual offending against children by pedophilic offenders in the future.

It has become a commonplace  to say that criminal justice is facing a crisis both in its conceptual premises and its practical applications or even to take this as a premise for discourses about criminal justice. At such a moment restorative justice emerges as a very peculiar proposal. It does not simply identify and criticize ‘what is wrong’ or malfunctioning in the contemporary practice of criminal justice: the restorative approach, in fact, suggests a decisive change in the way justice is understood and envisioned, both as a practice and as an idea. It is no surprise, then, that such a perspective has been recently gaining increasing attention in legal-philosophical studies.  Restorative Justice invites us to rethink the justification, the goal, and the limits of the reaction to crime – and emerges, as some of its proponents say, as a different ‘paradigm’ of justice.  Thus its core idea transcends the borderlines of the purely legal debate, nor can it be confined to the world of ‘social action’.
Therefore, the attempt to undertake a philosophical reflection on restorative justice should not surprise: although much restorative justice actually originated from practice and still constantly refers to it, the ‘holistic’ restorative approach to face the problem of justice assumes a remarkable (although seldom explicit) philosophical character.
Moreover, it must be noticed that the restorative approach relies on concepts and proposals which have a remarkably normative emphasis;  They therefore, require adequate argumentation in order to be justified philosophically: otherwise, there is a risk of confining restorative justice to being an ‘optional view’ that can be chosen or not depending on individual opinions or to general consensus. In other words, the ambition to represent an idea –and/or an ideal – of justice, obliges the restorative approach to face the challenge of reflecting on its own conceptual premises and on their foundations: a challenge that may sound unpopular, or even impossible in a cultural milieu – such the postmodern one – which assumes an anti-foundational perspective as a some kind of dogma.
This essay is meant to provide a brief, provisional exploration of the philosophical arguments which may help to showing that restorative justice is not just an ‘optional view’.  Many of the underlying assumptions and ideal goals of the restorative perspective call for a global rethinking of justice which transcends the mere need of solving situational problems and instead addresses the roots of the question about what justice is and what justice requires.
Connecting classical legal philosophy and the contemporary debate, the author explores some ethical and anthropological reflections that move towards a ‘dialogical’ idea of justice: such a conception is grounded on seeing ‘dialogue’ not just as a communicational fact but rather as a conceptual structure which is inherent to the human condition. Such theoretical coordinates may orient towards a more humane and ethically approvable approach to justice which, according to the author’s view, already lies behind some of the main proposals of restorative justice, awaiting for categories which may help to consolidate the innovative strength of such an approach within a solid philosophical frame.
"

'Justicia restaurativa' aún representa casi solamente un nombre para determinados modos de proceder que estimulan la participación voluntaria de las partes en procesos judiciales. En círculos y cámaras restaurativas se incorporan todos o la mayoría de los actores,ante todo víctimas y comunidades, a menudo excluidos de los procesos de Justicia. El propósito de los procedimientos restaurativos es un acuerdo para repararlos daños causados por toda y cualquier lesión a personas, propiedad o relaciones. La receta es envolver confiando en la capacidad de todos y de cada uno de asumir responsabilidades en la reparación del malhecho y evitar repetición de conductas negativas. Ni siempre las cámaras y los círculos restaurativos ocurren bajo las alas de un fiscal o juez de derecho; pueden realizarse también en comisarías de policía, en comunidades y escuelas. Pesquisas en muchos países muestran que 8 o 9 de cada 10 casos judiciales en que fueron utilizados procedimientos restaurativos los partícipes salieron satisfechos y los acuerdos fueron cumplidos. Ganaron todos: las víctimas, los infractores, las comunidades y la Justicia, cosa que no suele suceder con los metodos convencionales. Sin embargo, la justicia restaurativa aún no es más que simple curiosidad legal cuyo desarrollo está mayormente contenido por su limitación a un conjunto de principios (evitar la escalada del proceso judicial dando espacio a los arrollados en incidentes, encarando y resolviendo problemas en su contexto social, mirando al futuro, con un enfoque preventivo) desligado de la cultura normativa de la sociedad, es decir, de las reglas que rigen al sistema de justicia, sostenidas por valores comunes hasta cuando divergen los intereses.Eso no quiere decir que mismo en América Latina ya no hayan ocurrido cambios trascendentales: en Colombia se hicieron modificaciones de carácter restaurativo a las normas constitucionales, al paso que en muchos otros países acciones directas del judiciario y iniciativas de la sociedad civil contribuyeron para implantar innovaciones que incluyen medios alternativos de resolución de conflictos. Todavía, para garantizar el crecimiento seguro, amplio y sustentable de la JR,en Latinoamérica así como en el resto del mundo, es imperioso asegurarlo y mensurarlo por medio de transformaciones sistémicas y legislativas en base de evidencias – para excluir perspectivas equivocadas o practicas nocivas – y no exclusivamente por conveniencia política o por fuerza de prejuicios y intereses corporativos. No alcanza, pues, solamente financiar investigación académica sobre justicia restaurativa y promover proyectos piloto limitados a aplicarla según principios de oportunidad o como salida alternativa al procedimiento convencional (acuerdos reparatorios y suspensión condicional del proceso). Para establecer a la JR como modo efectivo de justicia es necesario incorporarla a la vida cotidiana,progresivamente insertando normas y procedimientos restaurativos en los sectores llave de nuestras sociedades, que hacen la diferencia: el sistema de justicia por entero, en los talleres y oficinas, en las escuelas, familias y comunidades.