Repair or Revenge: Victims and Restorative Justice.

Source: (2002) Claredon Studies in Criminology. Oxford and New York. Oxford University Press.

As Heather Strang comments at the beginning of her book, the criminal justice system as currently organized and administered in most countries ill serves victims and offenders. Hence, she sets out to explore from the victim’s perspective the possibilities of “doing justiceâ€? in a different way. This way would preserve the rights of offenders, yet would reintroduce into the justice system the voice of those most directly harmed by crime – namely, victims of crime, who have been marginalized and even excluded by modern criminal justice. In particular, Strang explores what it is that victims fundamentally want in the wake of crime: do they want repair or revenge? To pursue all of this she covers the following topics: the status and role of the victim in criminal justice, from the past to the present; a survey of key things that victims want in order to address their victimization satisfactorily; the victims’ rights movement in its various forms; the theory and practice of restorative justice, with focus on victims in relation to restorative justice; the Canberra Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE) as an alternative process for dealing with offenders and their victims; the experience of victimization; victim satisfaction with the restorative justice alternative; and a relational analysis of victims and offenders. Several appendices and a lengthy bibliography add value to the book by providing information on Strang’s research tools and directions for further study.