Restorative justice has become the emerging social movement for reform in the criminal justice system over the past decade. It refers to a range of informal justice practices designed to require offenders to take responsibility for their wrong-doing and to meet the needs of affected victims and communities. This book, based on empirical research findings, investigates whether restorative justice can offer victims of crime more than the formal court-based justice system.

Restorative justice has become the emerging social movement for reform in the criminal justice system over the past decade. It refers to a range of informal justice practices designed to require offenders to take responsibility for their wrong-doing and to meet the needs of affected victims and communities. This book, based on empirical research findings, investigates whether restorative justice can offer victims of crime more than the formal court-based justice system.

Advocates of restorative justice question the state's ability to deliver satisfactory justice. This provocative volume looks at the flourishing restorative justice movement and considers the relationship between restorative justice and civil society. Genuinely international, it addresses aspects of civil society including schools, families, churches and private workplaces and considers broader issues such as democracy, human rights, access and equity. It presents the ideals of restorative justice so that victims, offenders, their families and communities might have more representation in the...

This book addresses one of the most controversial topics in restorative justice: its potential for dealing with conflicts within families. Most restorative justice programs specifically exclude family violence as an appropriate offence to be dealt with this way. This book focuses on the issues in family violence that may warrant special caution about restorative justice, in particular, feminist and indigenous concerns. At the same time it looks for ways of designing a place for restorative interventions that respond to these concerns. Further, it asks whether there are ways that restorative...