Restorative justice: Origins, use, impact, and resources. Part 2: Restorative justice for serious offenders and their victims

Source: (2002) The Crime Victims Report 6 (March/April): 5-6, 14.

In the previous issue of the Crime Victims Report, Russ Immarigeon began an exploration of restorative justice by looking at the birth and development of this movement. In this second part, he looks more specifically at the question of a restorative justice approach to cases involving personal or stranger-to-stranger violence. The background to this is that, to some extent, restorative justice has been viewed as appropriate for less serious types of conflict and crime – for example, property crimes and civil disputes – but not necessarily appropriate for more serious wrongdoing. Still, over the years restorative justice has been employed in certain instances to address cases of serious violence. Immarigeon sketches the history of the use of restorative justice to address serious violence, and he discusses some of the concerns raised about restorative justice in such cases.