New Directions in Restorative Justice: Issues, Practice, Evaluation.

Source: (2005) Cullompton, UK: Willan Publishing.

Selected from papers presented at the Sixth International Conference on Restorative Justice (June 1-4, 2003), the chapters of this book pertain to youth and restorative justice, Aboriginal justice and restorative justice, victimization and restorative justice, and the evaluation of restorative justice. The four chapters of Part 1, “Youth and Restorative Justice,” examine restoration as the mainstream in juvenile justice, the application of restorative justice in school security, the achievement of effective outcomes in juvenile justice, and an assessment of Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act of 2003 from the perspective of restorative justice principles. The three chapters of Part 2, “Aboriginal Justice and Restorative Justice,” note the similarities between restorative justice principles and programs and the social control measures used in Aboriginal communities prior to their colonization. The authors emphasize that Aboriginal agencies and organizations must be allowed to develop their own versions of restorative justice that will be used in dealing with Aboriginal offenders. The four chapters of Part 3, “Victimization and Restorative Justice,” report on two studies that compared victims’ perspectives on traditional court processing and restorative justice conferences, the use of restorative justice in cases of elder abuse, treatment and trauma recovery for victims of violent crimes through restorative justice structures for victim-offender interaction, and issues in involving insurance companies in restorative justice programs as indirect victims of a crime. The four chapters of Part 4, “Evaluating Restorative Justice,” discuss how Nova Scotia has addressed problems associated with its efforts to implement a system-wide restorative justice paradigm, findings of an evaluation of restorative-justice conferencing for serious crimes, evaluation findings for conferences that involve serious juvenile offenders, and evaluation issues in addressing programs that purport to implement restorative justice principles. Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov.