Restorative Justice: History, Defining And Practices

Restorative justice is an approach to justice in which one of the responses to a crime is to organize a meeting between the victim and the offender, sometimes with representatives of the wider community. Restorative justice was reborn not out of formal structures and legislation, but of voluntary action by enthusiastic and dedicated practitioners from around the world. As the restorative tradition is expanding to deal with crimes, ages, and situations that it has never addressed before and as it starts to make sense in national, and also regional, and international fora, the responsibilities of both restorative justice practitioners and academics redouble. Bridges must be built in order to synthesize. The tensions characterizing the field have to congeal to create a stable platform. Awareness must be increased both at the macro and micro levels. This book aspires to respond to this urgent need. This book was written to give the opportunity to restorative justice practitioners to identify problems that they faced during implementation and which could help understand the gap that appears to exist between the theoretical and practical development of restorative justice.