U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Restorative Justice and the Law

NCJ Number
199537
Editor(s)
Lode Walgrave
Date Published
2002
Length
267 pages
Annotation
This book contains 10 papers that present different and sometimes opposing views on the ethical foundations of restorative justice, the relation between restorative responses and punishment, the possibility of including rehabilitative aims in restorative justice, the interaction of community and the state in relation to positioning restorative justice, and possible foundations for a restorative justice system.
Abstract
The book is structured under several sub-topics. First, does restorative justice serve other values than those of punitive or rehabilitative systems? The first chapter warns against trying to develop new general maxims, arguing that this would lead to another form of ethical imperialism. The author advances the concept of "hospitality" as the ethical essence for a bottoms-up approach in restorative justice. The second chapter argues that societies are looking for a minimal moral consensus, which it believes is to be found in the "victimalization" of moral values. A second sub-topic regards how restorative justice relates to the other two basic intervention models. A chapter makes clear that restorative justice does not oppose the rehabilitation of offenders. On the contrary, within the restorative justice process there is a thrust toward rehabilitating the offender. Another chapter explores family group conferences as a means of instructing young offenders in the principles of moral development; and another chapter focuses on restoration and punishment, with punishment viewed as a mandatory imposition of behavioral requirements that will lead to the offender's repairing the harm done by his/her crime. A chapter then sets the scene for the debate on how to reconcile restorative justice and the law, followed by a chapter that puts the ideal restorative justice approach into a perspective of less ideal responses. The author of this chapter believes a constructive mix of restorative justice and traditional justice mechanisms must be a part of the evolutionary process toward a unitary restorative justice system. Remaining chapters consider how procedural rules in the responsive state would be different from the traditional approach to procedures and safeguards, with a particular challenge to the proportionality principle; describe a model of restorative justice that would be maximally oriented toward restoration while respecting the principles of a constitutional democratic state; and discuss why a systemic response to crime should be oriented primarily toward restoration. 11 figures, 3 tables, chapter notes, 360 references, and a subject index

Downloads

No download available

Availability