NCJ Number
185875
Date Published
2000
Length
69 pages
Annotation
Restorative justice and community justice are becoming increasingly popular in the United States; although both are conceptually ambiguous and overlapping, they have distinctive core elements and are separate movements.
Abstract
Restorative justice is based on values that promote repairing harm and healing and encourage rebuilding of relations among victims, offenders, and communities. Community justice views crime as a social problem that affects life in communities and suggests prevention is an essential part of the work of criminal justice agencies. Both restorative justice and community justice share goals of community participation, empowerment, and development. It is not clear, however, as to whether restorative and community justice initiatives will work and with what effects. The theoretical promise of community justice has not yet achieved practical success. Although most participants are satisfied with restorative justice practices, there is little evidence that intensive emotional experiences have reduced crime, prevented victimization, or built communities. The author concludes the limited results of restorative justice and community justice reflect more the inadequacies of evaluation research to date than the non-feasibility of restorative and community justice concepts and goals. 196 references