Restorative Justice:

An Approach for All Countries—An Introduction


This special issue of Social Policy Times is written as fighting persists in Iraq, and millions have taken to marching for peace across the globe. This special issue is timely because the topic—restorative justice—is about healing and reconciliation, often between warring forces. It is a form of peacemaking that is as old as history.

This issue is timely also because last spring the United Nations Commission on Criminal Justice and Crime Prevention passed a resolution that put restorative justice on the international map. The resolution supports the establishment of restorative justice initiatives by the member states. The European Union previously had directed members to provide victim/offender mediation in criminal cases.

Restorative justice, as readers will learn in this edition of Social Policy Times, is a victim-oriented process that helps offenders repair the harm that was done and seek help for their problems. Restorative justice is also a set of principles about resolving disputes or reclaiming a balance in relationships.

The papers in this collection cover a range of topics, all related to community justice. Among the areas covered are family violence, community policing, juvenile justice, traditional Native forms of justice, community reparation, and environmental restoration.

The first offering by Michelle DiLauro provides an overview of one of the major forms of restorative justice—family group conferencing. This process, as we learn from the research described in this article, has much potential to address issues related to the need for a safe family environment through building partnerships.

Community policing is the topic of the next article by Margaret Martin. Through the development of close ties and trust within the community, this form of policing has a great deal of potential for restoring peace in the face of conflict. As an instrument for the state, however, as Martin informs us, this form of social control can reinforce structural violence.

Morris Jenkins and Marion Boss present a strong argument for an Afro-centric, culturally specific approach to meet the needs of African American juvenile offenders with a restorative justice process. Next we go to the Native American reservation to learn of traditional restorative practices of the Lakota tribe. This rare contribution to the literature is provided by Richard Voss, Sheryl Klein, and Ione Quigley.

Always there is the need for empirically based research to bolster the case that any given practice or approach is of proven effectiveness. To fulfill this need we have invited Mona Williams-Hayes to submit a summary of her recently completed dissertation on restorative justice effectiveness. Published here for the first time, Williams-Hayes' research utilizes a meta-analytic technique which collapses data from the available, empirically-based literature on victim-offender mediation and family group conferencing. The results are indicative of successful outcomes

For our (the co-editors') contributions, we both chose to focus at macro level restorative principles. Katherine van Wormer writes on reparations for wrongs done, sometimes by one national group against another nation or population. How can people be compensated today for wrongs done in the past? This is the question that restorative justice tries to address. Fred Besthorn’s paper brings us into the realm of spirituality in its contrast between human degradation of the earth, and environmental restoration, and the importance of applying principles of restorative justice in order to listen to "the voice of the earth." Besthorn's article blends nicely with the first book review on the spiritual roots of restorative justice. The second book review, Counseling Female Offenders and Victims: A Strengths-Restorative Approach, explores the relevance of restorative justice to the needs of victimized women, including some who have been convicted of a crime.


by Katherine van Wormer and Fred H. Besthorn (University of Northern Iowa)