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Restorative Justice: Theories and Worries

Braithwaite, John
June 4, 2015

Source: (2004) Visiting Experts’ Papers, 123rd International Senior Seminar, Resource Material Series No. 63, pp. 47-56. Tokyo: United Nations Asia and Far East Institute For the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. Downloaded 10 February 2005.

In this paper I consider a set of theories that increasingly seem to have strong relationships with one
another– theories of reintegrative shaming, procedural justice, unacknowledged shame and defiance– that offer an explanation of why restorative justice processes might be effective in reducing crime and accomplishing other kinds of restoration. Some of these theoretical claims are sure to be proved untrue by the kind of R & D advocated here. Equally, where these theoretical claims turn out to be true, we will find that the potential of this truth has not been sufficiently built into the design of restorative justice programmes. (excerpt)

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