"Restorative justice" offers an alternative to the traditional concept of punishment as a response to a criminal offense. It builds on the view that autonomous conflict settlement that typically leads to the reparation of the harm done by the offender and ideally to the reconciliation of victim and offender will re-establish the social peace disturbed by the offense. The key policy issue for the legitimation of restorative justice is to establish that the public interest can be served by non-punitive forms of reaction to a criminal offense. The implementation of restorative justice as a comprehensive response to crime has not thus far been the subject of criminological research. In many countries, individual projects that have included features of restorative justice have been evaluated, but there has not been a comprehensive assessment of the ability of restorative justice practices to improve public safety by reducing criminal behavior. There are good reasons to assume, however, that the rehabilitative potential of restorative justice is as potent as the rehabilitative potential of the traditional punitive system, and perhaps more so. Still, there have been no studies that provide the necessary empirical proof that mediation, reparation, and the other forms of restorative justice reduce recidivism. Regarding the situation of restorative justice in Germany, a 1993 survey found that victim-offender programs were offered by 51 institutions throughout the country. Since existing mediation schemes encompass only a small part of criminal justice processing, the status of restorative justice in Germany must be characterized as still unstable and in the process of slow expansion. 14 footnotes