“Restorative justice: Retribution, confession and shame.”

Source: (2000) In Restorative justice: Philosophy to practice, ed. Heather Strang and John Braithwaite, 77-91. Burlington, Vermont, U.S.: Ashgate Publishing Company.

Miller and Blackler begin by commenting on the use of “restorative justiceâ€? to refer to a wide array of ideas, processes, and outcomes and to apply to a broad range of problems and conflicts. As such, restorative justice may be verging on having no clear meaning. Hence, Miller and Blackler use the term “restorative justiceâ€? in a narrow sense to refer to contexts in which moral rights have been or might be infringed, with a need for redress or repair in response to such infringements. Their use of “restorative justiceâ€? especially refers to moral rights the criminal justice system has been designed to protect. On this basis, Miller and Blackler analyze three cases referred to conferencing processes to determine their success or failure, particularly with respect to the possibilities and the limitations of confession as a means for moral transformation and reconciliation.