“Conferences, Circles, Boards, and Mediations: Scouting the “New Waveâ€? of Community Justice Decisionmaking Approaches.”

Source: (1997) Balanced and Restorative Justice Project. Florida Atlantic University and University of Minnesota.

Although interest in “restorative justice,” “community justice,” and other alternatives to adversarial, retributive justice paradigms have recently captured the imagination of a number of criminal justice professionals and community members, thus far, most attention has been given to sanctioning programs, such as restitution and community service and to community courts, prosecution units, and related initiatives such as community policing. This paper describes and compares four approaches to citizen involvement in the sanctioning process now being used with some frequency in the U.S. and Canada. In doing so, we explore several questions about how each model defines the role of the community in justice decisonmaking and specifically examine how sanctions are enforced, and how crime victims are involved in the various processes. Implications for community corrections are considered.