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Conferencing Case Study: Applying Restorative Justice in a High-Profile Athletic Incident–A Guide to Addressing, Repairing and Healing Widespread Harm

Allena, Thom
June 4, 2015

Source: (2004) In David R. Karp and Thom Allena, eds., Restorative Justice on the College Campus: promoting student growth and responsibility, and reawakening the spirit of campus community. Springfield, Ill. : C.C. Thomas. Pp. 182-193.

Public awareness of deviant behavior by college athletes has increased in recent years. Athletic departments, colleges, and universities are seeking effective ways to deal with actual incidents and prevent new incidents. In this chapter, Thom Allena relates the story of one, high-profile, athletic scandal at the University of California-Los Angeles in 1999. It involved a group of current and former football team players who fraudulently obtained and used disabled parking stickers on campus. When this practice became widely known, public opinion pilloried the athletic program and athletes. The perpetrators violated university codes, regulations of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and the California Municipal Code. Accordingly, they found themselves potentially subject to a variety of sanctions. Allena recounts how the university took an innovative approach and addressed this scandal through the assessment, planning, facilitating, and follow-up of a large-scale restorative justice conference.

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AbstractConferencesCourtsFamiliesPolicePrisonsRestorative PracticesRJ and the WorkplaceRJ OfficeTeachers and StudentsVictim Support
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