This book records a symposium where imaginary presenters consisting of a politician, judge, psychologist, probation officer, victim assistance worker, philosopher and mediator discuss crime and punishment. This is the springboard for a review of developments in the field of restorative justice, challenging many 'sacred cows' of crime and punishment and focusing on the people who suffer directly, the victims. A key theme is that if society as a whole does not encourage respect then it ought to be no surprise that offenders have scant regard for the property, physical integrity or rights of other people. The system itself can serve to weaken rather than improve safety and security. The book points to the dangers of a punitive mind-set and reflects on the arguments and data in favour of an effective, inclusionary, community-based response to crime.

Restoring Justice: An Introduction to Restorative Justice offers a clear and convincing explanation of restorative justice, a movement within criminal justice with growing worldwide influence. It explores the broad appeal of this new vision and offers a brief history of its development. The book presents a theoretical foundation for the principles and values of restorative justice and develops its four cornerpost ideas of encounter, amends, inclusion and reintegration. After exploring how restorative justice ideas and values may be integrated into policy and practice, it presents a series of key issues commonly raised about restorative justice, summarizing various perspectives on each.

This update of the 1997 edition expands on the vision of a restorative model for criminal justice reform that promotes healing for victims. The authors, affiliated with the Prison Fellowship Movement, discuss current barriers to reform, the values of and efforts toward restorative justice, and objections to it. Includes some previously published material, and UN and other international declarations on this approach. c. Book News Inc.

In Rethinking Justice, Richard H. Bell lifts up and restores an idea of justice found in classical writers such as Socrates and Seneca as well as in more recent thinkers. Justice, classically, has dealt with righting wrongs and restoring peace to individuals and human communities. We have lost sight of this in our modern political and legal dealings and must find a way to return it to mind and to practice. Each chapter looks at ways to restore such reconciliatory practices to the idea of justice that can be found in our contemporary life and literature and focuses on numerous recent cases of abuse of justice among individuals, groups and nations. Bell approaches justice as a concept that goes hand in hand with compassion, mercy, and trust. Rethinking Justice reminds us that we have an obligation to foster peace, be merciful, and promote reconciliation with our brothers and sisters in humanity.

Second edition with additional material by the author, and a new foreword by one of the UK's leading penal reformers. Classic and original - one of the works that paved the way for the development of the Restorative Justice movement. Argues that the real need is for fundamental rethinking of crime and punishment, rather than short-term tinkering with a prison system that is in an intolerable state of crisis. Demonstrates that neither the conservative idea of deterrence through punishment nor the liberal ideal of rehabilitation has worked in practice and proposes the basis for a radical but carefully worked out practical philosophy which would place the emphasis on the offender making amends to the victim and society for the damage caused. 'All those concerned with the monstrosity that is our current prison system, the unchecked growth of the criminal justice system as the response to social problems and the poverty of ideas in dealing with the harm caused by crime will find a re-read of this classic text very worthwhile' Baroness Vivien Stern (from the Foreword). 'The real value of this book is surely in the philosophical arguments that he puts forward to support his thinking. He forces the reader to think through what society's expectations are when someone is sent to prison. Is it to deter against future offending or to deter others? To isolate the criminal from society for the protection of the public? Or is it for rehabilitation? The aims of imprisonment are expounded at length later in the book together with an appraisal of the ethical and practical aspects of punishment, deterrence, denunciation and of justice itself. Making Good provides a demanding, but fascinating read. Although the description of prison life a quarter of a century ago and the thinking behind the policies that determined it, belong to the era in which it was written, the arguments Martin Wright puts forward about justice and punishment still remain pertinent today: ' Internet Law Book Reviews. 'Engages with some diverse elements of imprisonment and with contemporary penal issues' Helen Poole, Coventry University. Martin Wright is a former Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Policy Officer of Victim Support, and Librarian of the Cambridge Institute of Criminology. He is a Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, and the author of Restoring Respect for Justice and Justice for Victims and Offenders. He is joint editor of Mediation and Criminal Justice: Victims, Offenders and Community. A founder member of the Restorative Justice Consortium, he is currently a member of its board, and acts as a voluntary mediator in the Lambeth Mediation Service, London. As an active member of the European Forum for Restorative Justice he has spoken at many international conferences, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Conflict Resolution, Bulgaria.

The book outlines why criminal justice is in need of a new vision, and how restorative justice can meet this need. The authors define restorative justice and its values, explore its foundational underpinnings, and details ways to build restorative justice into policy and practice. The book grew out of a three-year project investigating the theory behind restorative justice, the principles for its application, and the implementation of practical programs to advance the restorative justice vision. This second edition continues with the mission by examining how restorative justice concepts have been applied, and by evaluating the conceptual and practical objections and obstacles to restorative justice in practice.

An introduction to the most fundamental and distinctive ideas of restorative justice and to the key arguments both for and against its use. The main aim is to make the phenomenon of restorative justice and the major debates about it, comprehensible to relative newcomers, whether students of criminology, law or related disciplines, or researchers or professionals with an interest in crime and justice issues. At the same time, the book seeks to extend the range of the debate about the meaning of restorative justice, its pros and cons, and its broader significance.