Restorative justive restores victims, restores perpetrators and restores communities. It is about the idea that because crime hurts, justice should heal.

Restorative justice is partly about the aim that justice processes repair the harm done through domination, whether that is the domination of crime, of war or of school bullying. Because crime and war hurt, justice should heal. Restorative justice has a place for passive responsibility for past wrongs, but is more concerned with stakeholders taking active responsibility for justice as a better future. The process of acknowledging past domination and agreeing to transcend it can be heavily laden with shame. It risks humiliation. Averting humiliation and preserving dignity, individually and institutionally, are important to shame management in restorative justice. These are reasons for conceiving restorative justice and shame management as important to crime prevention and war prevention. Restorative justice is a process for realising values of non-domination by sitting stakeholders in a circle to ask simple questions:

What happened?

How were people affected?

What needs to be done to make things better?

In this short lecture, John Braithwaite examines some of the key theories and applications of Restorative Justice.

(image from spiritinthecity blog; shows mural in Balmy Alley in the Mission, San Francisco)

KEY REFERENCES (click on title for free pdf download)

Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation

J. Braithwaite (2002) Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation New York, Oxford University Press. Explains restorative justice processes and values and examines whether or not they work.

Restorative and Responsive Regulation: The Question of Evidence

For an update on whether restorative justice works, see Restorative and Responsive Regulation: The Question of Evidence (rev 2016).

The Silk Road and Restorative Justice

J. Braithwaite and Y. Zhang (2017) ‘Persia to China: the Silk Road of Restorative Justice I‘ Asian Journal of Criminology 12(1):23-38.

J. Braithwaite (2017) ‘Hybrid politics for justice: the Silk Road of Restorative Justice II‘. Restorative Justice 5(1):7-28.

Restorative justice can be a useful part of the response to complex challenges as diverse as those listed below:

(click on article title for free pdf download)

Indigenous justice

J. Braithwaite (2014) “Traditional justice”. In Jennifer Llewellyn and Daniel Philpott (eds.), Restorative Justice, Reconciliation and Peacebuilding. New York: Oxford University Press.

Taliban insurgency

J. Braithwaite and A. Gohar (2014), ‘Restorative Justice, Policing and Insurgency: Learning from Pakistan’, Law and Society Review 48(3), 531-561.

Preventing the global financial crisis and corporate tax fraud

J. Braithwaite (2013) ‘Flipping markets to virtue with qui tam and restorative justice’, Accounting Organizations and Society 38(6-7) 458-468.

Transitional justice after war

R. Nickson and J. Braithwaite (2014) ‘Deeper, Broader, Longer Transitional Justice‘, European Journal of Criminology 11(4), 445-463.

Legitimacy and procedural justice

J. Braithwaite (2007) ‘Building Legitimacy Through Restorative Justice‘ in T. Tyler (ed.), Legitimacy and Criminal Justice: International Perspectives, Russell Sage, NewYork, 146-162.

Airline safety and sexual abuse of children

J. Braithwaite (2004) “Between Proportionality and Impunity: Confrontation => Truth => Prevention“, The American Society of Criminology 2004 Sutherland Address”, Criminology, 43(2), 2005, 283-306.

Corporate crime

J. Braithwaite (2003) “Restorative Justice and Corporate Regulation” in Elmar G.M. Weitekamp and Hans-Jürgen Kerner (eds). Restorative Justice in Context. International Practice and Directions, Willan Publishing, Devon, UK, 2003, 161-172.

Domestic violence

H. Strang and J. Braithwaite (2002)(eds) Restorative Justice and Family Violence, Melbourne, Cambridge University Press. (pdf not available)

Crime prevention

J. Braithwaite(2002) Linking Crime Prevention to Restorative Justice in J. Perry (ed.), Restorative Justice: Repairing Communities Through Restorative Justice. Lanham, Md.: American Correctional Association.

Growing children, finding them jobs

J. Braithwaite (2001) “Youth Development Circles” Oxford Review of Education, 27(2): 239-252.

Drug abuse

J. Braithwaite (2001) “Restorative Justice and a New Criminal Law of Substance Abuse”, Youth and Society, 33(2): 227-248.

Social justice and domination

J. Braithwaite (2000) “Restorative Justice and Social Justice” Saskatchewan Law Review 63(1): 185-194.

Democracy building

J. Braithwaite (2000) “Democracy, Community and Problem Solving” in G. Burford. and J. Hudson (eds), Family Group Conferencing: New Directions in Community-Centered Child and Family Practice. New York, Aldine de Gruyther, 2000.

Restorative accountability

J. Braithwaite (2006) “Accountability and Responsibility Through Restorative Justice” in Michael Dowdle (ed) Rethinking Public Accountability, Cambridge University Press.

OTHER RESOURCES ON RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

International:

Regional:

Locally – here in Canberra we have the:

Video: Radical Ideas in Justice and Regulation, J. Braithwaite, Ronin Films, 2014.