Source: (2005) Internet Journal of Criminology, www.internetjournalofcriminology.com. Downloaded 18 May 2005.
The conceptual relationship between restorative justice and punishment has already attracted
a great deal of attention in the literature. A similarly rich body of work has considered the
two main aims of punishment, retributivism and reductivism, in relation to criminological
theories. It is surprising, therefore, that relatively little (direct) attention has been paid to the
relation between restorative justice and theories of crime. This paper first reviews the
concept of restorative justice, and then examines the affinities and tensions between
restorative justice and three ‘individual’ criminological theories: classicism, individual
positivism, and ‘law and order’ conservatism. These theories have been selected because of
their significance in the development of present criminal justice policies. Author’s abstract.
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