Source: (2012) Paper presented at the 1st International Symposium on Restorative Justice and Human Rights. 2-7 June 2012, Skopelos Island, Greece.
“A revolution is occurring in criminal justice. A quiet, grassroots, seemingly unobtrusive, but truly
revolutionary movement is changing the nature, the very fabric of our work.” Justice, as most of us know it,
is premised on Calvinistic notions that have been shown to be relatively ineffective. RJ is not about adding
new programs or modifying our old ones, but it is about how do we best reorient how we think about crime
and justice. While RJ is premised on the fundamental assertion of restoring or repairing harm as much as
possible to the victim/community, we are calling for fairness over accountability and punishment. Yet,
there is little in the current CJS that allows for the offender to embrace and acknowledge their
responsibility. The presentation will focus on the necessary shift of human rights within the new paradigm
context and explore how this might best evaluated.(author’s abstract)
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