Restorative justice is every action that is primarily oriented toward doing justice by repairing the harm caused by a crime. It includes: (1) efforts to heal victims, offenders, and communities that crime has injured; (2) opportunities for active by victims, offenders, and communities in the criminal justice process as early and fully as possible; and (3) rethinking of the relative roles and responsibilities of the government and the community. The juvenile justice system currently seems to be the most suitable location to introduce restorative justice as a dominant response. However, the idea of coercive restorative sanctions, the need for judicial safeguards, the insistence on an outcome focus on repair, and the option of a full-fledged alternative rather than a less holistic focus are likely to be matters of discussion and disagreement. Basic differences in approaches may also occur in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. These controversies should be regarded for the time being as healthy tensions in the developmental process of the restorative justice paradigm. Figure, notes, and 60 references