Classification and Restorative Justice: Is there a Relationship?

Source: (1999) Topics in Community Corrections, Annual Issue 1999.

As Michael Dooley comments, many in the corrections field are puzzled about what to do with their professional perspectives on working with offenders when confronted with restorative justice. For example, most correctional agencies have a classification scheme to make decisions, place offenders, and work with them. Restorative justice proponents argue that such schemes represent what is fundamentally wrong with formal justice: it focuses on the offender, even to the exclusion of the victim and the community. Dooley maintains that good classification schemes can be compatible with restorative justice, but corrections professionals need to expand their perspectives and develop models of classification that incorporate the restorative justice paradigm.