Book Review: Repositioning Restorative Justice, edited by Lode Walgrave

Source: (2003) VOMA Connections no. 16 (Winter): 15. Downloaded 19 May 2004.

As Russ Immarigeon notes, the International Network for Research on Restorative Justice for Juveniles – headed by Lode Walgrave of the Catholic University at Leuven, Belgium – has held several important international conferences on restorative justice in recent years. The fifth conference, held in late September 2001, led to two printed volumes of papers. The first was Restorative Justice and the Law (2002). The second, reviewed here by Immarigeon, was Repositioning Restorative Justice (2003). Through a number of papers written by various authors, the book consists of an examination of the positioning of restorative justice with respect to the traditional, retributive criminal justice system. Walgrave, editor of the volume, hopes that the collection of papers will demonstrate the importance of restorative justice while at the same time keeping restorative justice from becoming just another trendy phrase with so many meanings that it has no particular and useful meaning. Immarigeon surveys the contents of the book and recommends it, at least in part because of its reporting of restorative justice practices throughout the world.