Barely known 20 years ago, the concept of restorative justice has grown to become a driving force in reform efforts of criminal justice systems worldwide. This edited collection of papers is one of two volumes developed out of the fifth international conference on restorative justice held in Leuven in September 2001. The conference revealed that restorative practices are more satisfactory for victims, are more constructive for communities, and are more reintegrative for offenders than the current, modern criminal justice system. However, because of its popularity as a concept, it is imperative to implement restorative practices with caution and forethought in order to avoid confusion with regards to the aims of restorative techniques. Many questions remain about how to position restorative justice within a modern justice system that seems to demand the punitive punishment of the offender. The 18 chapters in this book grapple with the multitude of questions that arise when considering how to apply restorative practices within criminal justice practices that are at odds with restorative goals. This edited volume is divided into four sections. The first section focuses on theory, with particular attention paid to the punishment paradigm. One of the chapters in section 1 discusses the issue of whether a punishment component has a place in a restorative justice model, while another chapter considers restorative justice programs in Norway and Denmark. The chapters in section 2 evaluate various aspects of restorative practices. One chapter in section 2 offers a survey of evaluation research on restorative justice programs spanning from 1971 through 2001, while another chapter identifies four procedural aims of the restorative intervention of family group conferencing. The chapters in section 3 look at extending the scope of restorative practices to fields that have not traditionally been included in restorative practices. One chapter in this section questions whether the use of seemingly restorative justice practices in prison settings can be considered legitimately restorative in nature. Finally, the chapters in section 4 describe how different countries have tried to include restorative approaches into their practices and legislation, including a chapter that reviews a new restorative juvenile justice statute in South Africa. Index