Source: (2002) Houston Chronicle, April 12.
In this article, Thom Marshall, columnist for the Houston Chronicle, writes about restorative justice initiatives in Texas through a discussion with Ronnie Earle, district attorney of Travis County, Texas. Earle used to believe that the definition of justice was vengeance. Yet he found that this tough response to crime did not make crime victims happy, and it did not stop crime. His department embarked on various innovations, but none of them changed the fundamental retributive nature of the justice system. Thus, he became interested in a radically different way of thinking about crime and response to crime: restorative justice, in which the victim is central, and crime is viewed as harm done to people and communities.
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