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Restorative Justice and Its Critics

Luna, Erik.
June 4, 2015

Source: (2000) Lecture Transcript. Fulbright-New Zealand. Victoria Faculty of Law. Tuesday July 25.

In this lecture, Erik Luna assesses the validity of the major criticisms against restorative approaches to the criminal sanction. Toward this end, he reviews the definition of restorative justice and its core elements. Then he classifies and examines leading objections to restorative justice in terms of three categories of critique: (1) disservice to individuals (primarily, the offender and the victim); (2) disservice to society (e.g., by failing to meet the instrumental goals of criminal justice or by producing harmful consequences to the community and its members); and (3) deficiencies in the process (i.e., alleged defects in the restorative justice process that prevent the achievement of its goals). This leads to discussion of the limits of restorative justice as well as its potential.

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