“Cultural and Ethnic Issues in Restorative Justice: Considering Community Dynamics.”

Source: (1996) Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology Conference, Annual Meeting, Chicago, November 20-23, 1996.

This paper argues that more complete implementation of restorative interventions in indigenous communities can be facilitated when attention is given to internal community power dynamics. For example, an extensive tradition of use symbolic ritual in the response to crime may allow for expression of community disapproval without banishment to facilitate implementation in native, as well as in urban restorative communities. Efforts to implement restorative justice in ways that do not respect indigenous traditions and without regard to power imbalances and internal patterns of abuse are unlikely to succeed.