“Toward a Holistic Vision of Restorative Juvenile Justice: A Reply to the Maximalist Model.”

Source: (2000) Contemporary Justice Review. 3(4):357-.

This paper engages the efforts to develop a mid-range theory to complete the vaguely-defined paradigm of restorative justice. Advocates of a Maximalist model have been critical of a voluntary process-based theoretical structure to evaluate the restorativeness of different models. A Purist model of restorative justice based on a voluntary cooperative approach is proposed, which is shown to be holistic in response to stakeholder needs. The author defends a “diversionist” perspective and a process definition of restorative justice. The Maximalist model’s assumed roles for community and society as direct stakeholders is shown to incorporate both retribution and treatment goals. The cornerstone of the Maximalist model, court-imposed “restorative sanctions” is criticized as a non-restorative practice. A three-fold typology of restorative practices based upon victim reparation, offender responsibility, and communities-of-care reconciliation is proposed which places the Purist model within a holistic approach and distinguishes fully, restorative from partly restorative practices.