Restorative justice is seen as promoting the inclusion of the direct stakeholders in the response to the offense, which is challenged to the traditional over reaction to crime. The first aim of this book is to provide clarity, and pull from existing restorative justice literature what the essentials of restorative justice are and should be ideally. A clearer distinction is proposed between (1) the core of restorative justice as a restricted option on doing justice after the occurrence of a crime, (2) the other practices of resolving conflicts and injustices, (3) the socio-ethical roots which inspire the choice for restorative justice, and (4) the social-political or ideological movement of which the restorative justice movement can be a part. A second purpose of this book is to dig up the socio-ethical and ideological layers that inspire the pursuit of restorative justice and other deliberative models of conflict resolution. This vision for restorative justice incorporates the following key elements: (1) a clearly outcome-based definition of restorative justice; (2) acceptance of the need to use judicial coercion to impose sanctions as part of the reparative process; (3) a view of a restorative justice principle as an alternative to the current punitive belief; (4) development of a more sophisticated concept of the relationship between restorative justice and the law, and acceptance of the need for legal regulation; (5) the expansion of a restorative justice philosophy into other areas of social life and the threats and opportunities this provides; and (6) a reflection on the implications of restorative justice for the discipline of criminology and for the movement for more participatory democracy. Notes, references, and index