In this short video John Braithwaite provides a succinct summary of the meaning of restorative justice and how it can be part of a healing process. As John says in this excerpt;

Restorative justice is about outside-in design, where the insiders are not telling us how to regulate our lives all the time, but we’re coming up with our own solutions.

This trailer is from a full-length documentary called ‘Radical Ideas in Justice and Regulation’ distributed by Ronin Films.

Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation are policy ideas that have spread widely in the 21st century. They are about the notion that because crime hurts, justice should heal. Because injustice causes great pain, it is more important to fix it than punish it. That said, these policies leave a strategically important place for deterrence in crime control, the control of school bullying, business regulation and peacemaking in international affairs. In this film, John Braithwaite explains how we can make wise choices about whether to punish or persuade.

Whether the challenge is to regulate climate change, crime, or war-making, responsive regulation helps us organise a mix of regulatory strategies to tackle the problem. Because most regulatory strategies fail most of the time, we must learn to fail fast, learn, and adjust to a different regulatory strategy. Because people need to learn to work together again after terrible tragedy or wrong-doing, acknowledging shame, repairing the harm and restoring relationships are also critical.

The full documentary can be purchased or rented online at Ronin Films’ vimeo page.