Restitution or reparation is restricted to minor offenses and to be used as a minor component of sentences with a punitive thrust. If retributivists were to acknowledge that a breach of public law is also wrong done to a victim, reparative justice might be central within a retributive framework. This could be achieved through existing and other forms of compensation order and by giving reparation priority in all cases but those where the crime is serious and the scope for reparation is limited. When reparation is voluntary, it should, as a matter of retributive justice in relation to the offender, reduce or make unnecessary any court compensation order; it should also remind the court that the wrong done to the victim has been remedied, such that the level of retribution imposed need not reflect the damage done to the victim. 13 references.