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Relational Justice: Ten Years On

Burnside, Jonathan
June 4, 2015

Source: (2003) Relational Justice Bulletin. 19:6-7. Relationships Foundation. Downloaded 30 March 2004.

Michael Schluter and Jonathan Burnside have been instrumental in the development and promotion of relational justice for more than a decade. Relational justice focuses on putting relationships at the heart of the criminal justice system. That is, relational justice centers on making right relationships the goal of the criminal justice system. This aim stems from a relational worldview which accords with the Judaeo-Christian tradition. In this tradition justice involves upholding a moral order defined by a personal and loving God; hence, justice is fundamentally personal and relational. Schluter and Burnside survey the current state of criminal justice and government policy in England and Wales, and they argue why a relational approach in criminal justice and other sectors in society is needed all the more, ten years after the introduction of relational justice.

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