Full Text Documents on RJ Online

Read full text documents collected on RJ Online.

Church Council on Crime and Justice. "Is crime a faith issue?"

Some people may consider crime to be essentially a socio-political issue, with faith having little role to play in understanding it or devising a response to it. In this short piece, the Church Council on Justice and Corrections states fundamental reasons why crime is truly a faith issue.

Community justice: Not to you or for you, but with you

by Christa Pierpont. The “magic” of restorative practices comes from a principled belief that when there is a breach in relationships, people can re-story their lives (often in gifted ways), given an active and supported responsibility to do so. It is clear from the research report, Restorative Justice: The Evidence, (Lawrence W. Sherman and Heather Strang, Smith Institute, 2007) that individuals can transcend large and small wrongs in a highly satisfactory way with improved long-term consequences when restorative practices are used. Our next question was: Could this opportunity be expanded from individuals to a wider sense of cultural harms?

Conradie, Herman, et.al. 2008. External Evaluator's Report on the Khulisa Phoenix JARP (Justice and Restoration Project).

The 2020 strategy for South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) requires an exploration of restorative justice as one of the means to combating crime in the long term. Non-governmental-organization Khulisa Crime Prevention Initiative collaborated with the NPA and Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to introduce a restorative justice and alternative dispute resolution pilot project named “Phoenix JARP” in a township of the KwaZulu Natal province. It also aimed at assisting the NPA reduce its court backlog of 1000+ cases by 15 percent in one calendar year.

Cook, Kim. A restorative justice critique of shelters for battered women in the American deep south

While shelters did not arise out of restorative justice theory, Cook applies such theory to determine whether shelters in the American deep south fulfill the criteria of restorative justice and moral pragmatism.

Cowie, Helen. (2010). Restorative practice in school: A psychological perspective. Seminar Three: Inter-disciplinary perspectives on restorative approaches to conflict in schools. 14 Sept.

At its core lies the concept of a caring, inclusive community. When conflicts arise – as inevitably they will – restorative practices engage the perpetrators, their victims and significant others in the school community in a collective process of problem-solving whose aim is reparation of damage, restoration of the quality of relationships and facilitating the reintegration of participants in the conflict back into the school community. In schools the work is not only done with perpetrators and victims but with the whole school, through, for example, circle time, problemsolving, conflict resolution, peer mediation. In other words, this is for all members of the school community (Cameron and Thorsborne, 2001; Cowie and Jennifer, 2008; Hopkins, 2004; Morrison, 2003; Wachtel and McCold, 2001). In contrast to traditional punitive approaches to discipline, restorative practices place more emphasis on pupils themselves resolving conflicts and so in the long term build a stronger sense of community. (excerpt)

Cundy, Mick. Referral Orders in England and Wales

Cundy summarizes the use of referral orders in England and Wales. He goes through the principles and legislation informing the new disposition method, the objectives held by the youth justice board, and the roles of the Youth Offending teams.

Cunningham, Teresa. Restorative justice and its impact on the re-offending of juveniles in regional and remote Australia: A NorthernTerritory perspective.

In August 2000 a Juvenile Pre-court Diversion Scheme was introduced in the Northern Territory. This scheme, administered by police, uses warnings and conferences, where appropriate, to divert juveniles from the court process, and therefore ultimately from a custodial sentence. This paper reports on preliminary data from a PhD study which analyses the extent to which restorative justice processes, as used in the juvenile diversion scheme, impacted on the amount of re-offending of juveniles over the initial five year period of the Scheme from August 2000 to August 2005. The findings showed that, over the first five years of the Scheme, the majority of juveniles did not re-offend. However, for those who did re-offend, when comparing demographic, geographic, offence and diversion variables, it was found that younger, Indigenous males from regional centres and remote communities had a higher rate of reoffending than juveniles in other demographic and geographic groups. The findings also showed that those juveniles who received a diversion re-offended to a lesser extent than those who had made a court appearance. The results of a Survival Analysis indicated that juveniles who received a diversion were at less risk of re-offending than those who went to court, and that juveniles who attended court re-offended more quickly than those who received a diversion.

Cuzzo, Maria Stalzer Wyant. The Code of the Peaceful Warrior: A Restorative Justice Response to Recent Events

Following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States, some asked Maria Cuzzo (lawyer, teacher, and practitioner of mediation and conflict resolution) about the possibilities of a mediation or restorative justice response to the events.

Czwartosz, Elzbieta. Qualifications of Mediators between Victims and Offenders in Poland

Dr. Czwartosz provides an update on expanded victim offender mediation law and practice in Poland. In 2003, new regulations allowed courts to utilize mediation and apply its results at any time during the judicial process.

Czwartosz, Elzbieta. Victim - offender mediation. Short notes from Poland

In Poland, a number of options for training in victim offender mediation (VOM) have been developed over the past several years. The law also now allows mediation to be used and to affect the justice system outcomes for both adult and juvenile cases.

Dapena, José and Martín, Jaime. La Mediación Penal Juvenil en Cataluña, España

En los últimos 25 años, la dinámica de readaptación del marco legal y las políticas criminales, en relación a los jóvenes infractores, ha sido una constante en toda Europa.

Dapena, José and Martín, Jaime. Mediation in Juvenile Criminal Cases-The Case of Catalonia

Over the last forty years, changes in Europe in the sphere of the juvenile justice system have allowed for a progressive diversification of responses to juvenile delinquency and strengthening alternatives to confinement.

Darling, Justine. 2011. Restorative justice in higher education: Compilation of formats and best practices. University of San Diego.

Restorative Justice is possible in any Institution of Higher Education and this document highlights clear steps and resources for institutions to become more restorative. The findings are based on best practices used by colleges and universities already implementing restorative processes and was created to give leaders in Higher Education the tools they need to take first steps in successfully implementing Restorative Justice. (author's abstract)

Davis, Fania. Ghandi's Justice and Restorative Justice

Remarks Delivered At The 10th Annual Howard Thurman Convocation. Church of the Fellowship of All Peoples 2041 Larking Street,San Francisco, California 94109. October 16, 2005

de Brito, Paulo. 2008. An Introduction to Restorative Justice in Portugal.

In July 2007, Portugal enacted statutory law regulating victim-offender mediation. This essay seeks to address how the provisions of Law no. 21/2007, of 12 June, can be understood within Europe’s international developments of the restorative justice movement.

Declaration of Costa Rica about Restorative Justice In Latin America

RECOGNIZING the Resolution of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (July 24, 2002) and the “letter of Araçatuba” (2005) as foundations, with the aim of promoting restorative justice processes and to sustain them through information and communication through civil society, as well as propitiating programs that include such processes and that seek restorative results…

Deputy Chief Justice Of Uganda. National Community Service Committee

Community service is part of penal reform in this country, which will ultimately contribute to the improvement of the rule of law in the country. The decision to include community service among punishments for offences in the crime was taken for various reasons.

Dignan, James. Restorative Justice and the Law: the case for an integrated, systemic approach

Dignan advocates the promotion of restorative justice (RJ) principles and outcomes for widely reforming the existing criminal justice system.

Dissel, Amanda. Restoring the Harmony: Piloting Victim Offender Conferencing in South Africa

The Victim Offender Conferencing project was a pilot project that sought to build on restorative justice experiences described above.

Do Better Do Less: The report of the Commission on English Prisons Today

Do Better Do Less: The report of the Commission on English Prisons Today advocates a new approach of penal moderation and a number of fundamental reforms, including: - A significant reduction in the prison population and the closure of establishments - The replacement of short prison sentences with community-based responses - The dismantling of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), including the break up of the centrally managed prison service - With local authorities as lead partners, we suggest local strategic partnerships should be formed that bring together representatives from the criminal justice, health and education sectors, with local prison and probation budgets fully devolved and made available for justice reinvestment initiatives