Restorative Justice

Just Institutions after Genocide: Ricoeur's 'Little Ethics' and the Case of Armenia

by Michael Funk Deckard

This paper attempts to do three things. First, I will describe what I mean by ‘just institutions’, in which both terms... more This paper attempts to do three things. First, I will describe what I mean by ‘just institutions’, in which both terms are equally valid and equally problematic. There is no justice without institutions and there are no institutions without justice. Yet it is scarcely realistic to claim that all institutions are just. However, the goal and aim of justice is necessary. Second, I will give a brief outline of the history of political philosophy central to the argument I am making here, namely, that for a democracy to thrive it must ‘aim at the Good Life with and for Others in Just Institutions’ (see Ricoeur's Oneself as Another, 169-296). Just as it is necessary to examine the development and history of the polis, republic, and nation-state to comprehend where a country is now, so it is necessary to look briefly at the history of the concept of justice, especially with regards to intentions and motivations. Third, I will speculatively try to apply this account to the case of Armenia. I say speculative because I am aware how difficult, complicated and messy it is to apply theories to particular cases. Hence, it is in this third part that I am most likely to blunder. However, following Socrates’ cliché of ‘know thyself’, and as acting and suffering subjects, we should undertake the challenge of moral and political self-reflection and questioning necessary for a thriving eudaimoniac democracy.

IJR vol 2 Mar 20 2012.pdf

by Konstantin Petoukhov

“The Connection between Stigma, Power and Life Chances: A Qualitative Examination of Gender and Sex Crime in Yemen.” Sociological Focus. 45 (2): 159-175.

by Rebecca Trammell

Co-authored with Travis Morris

Using interview and observational data collected in 2008, we examine how community leaders discuss gender norms and... more Using interview and observational data collected in 2008, we examine how community leaders discuss gender norms and social stigma in Yemen. We focus on how interviewees describe how and why they stigmatize and discriminate against women. We pay particular attention to the connection between stigma and life chances (Link and Phelan 2001). Informants explain that women committing fornication are subjected to imprisonment, banishment, or honor killing. Men, on the other hand, are able to engage in impression management and mediation rituals in order to return to their communities. These practices connect the formal legal system in Yemen to gender norms and allow men in this society to maintain power over women.

An evaluation of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) through the lens of restorative justice and the theory of recognition

by Konstantin Petoukhov

Children of the Abyss: Permutations of Childhood in South Africa’s Child Justice Act

by James Maguire

This article critically examines recent legislation in South Africa intended to systematically overhaul the country’s... more This article critically examines recent legislation in South Africa intended to systematically overhaul the country’s juvenile justice regime. Developed and heatedly debated over the course of a decade, the Child Justice Act implements novel procedural protections and large-scale restorative justice programs. By analyzing the political history, social context, and evolving text of the Child Justice Act, I call into question prevailing assumptions about post-apartheid South Africa’s socio-legal history. Close examination of the act’s major drafts (in 2002, 2007, and 2008) reveals a set of tensions in the political and rhetorical status of youths as alternately victims of circumstance and threats to society. Rather than confronting and resolving this tension, which subverts the linear logic of post-apartheid “transition”, the act reinscribes that tension in a new vocabulary and logic of governance and social management. Contemporary South African history thus demonstrates a pattern not of transition but of problematic permutations.

Mais punição, menos prisão? A construção de alternativas à pena de prisão e ao processo penal num contexto de aumento da demanda punitiva

by Guilherme Augusto Dornelles de Souza

Co-autoria de/Co-authored with Rodrigo Ghiringhelli de Azevedo.
Trabalho apresentado em/Paper presented at: XVI Encontro da Associação Brasileira de Psicologia Social

"More punishment, less prison? The construction of alternatives to imprisonment and to criminal proceedings in a... more "More punishment, less prison? The construction of alternatives to imprisonment and to criminal proceedings in a punitive-centered context"

Esse trabalho tem como pano de fundo uma pesquisa que vem sendo desenvolvida pelo Grupo de Pesquisa em Políticas Públicas de Segurança e Administração da Justiça Penal (PUCRS) em conjunto com o Grupo Candango de Criminologia (UNB) e o Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas em Criminalidade, Violência e Políticas Públicas de Segurança (UFPE) no projeto
“Descarcerização e Sistema Penal”, com o objetivo de identificar possibilidades de implementação de políticas penais tendentes a contribuir para a redução da população carcerária no Brasil. Pesquisas sobre a política criminal brasileira a partir da redemocratização apontam a produção de leis que aumentaram as penas anteriormente previstas para determinados crimes, que ampliaram o número de atos previstos como crimes e que criaram novas restrições às garantias dos acusados, que podem ser entendidas como reflexos do aumento da demanda punitiva. Por outro lado, no mesmo período, tais pesquisas também assinalam a produção de leis que caracterizam políticas penais alternativas às penas reclusivas e que ampliaram as hipóteses de implementação dessas políticas. Segundo informações do Ministério da Justiça, desde 2008 o número de pessoas cumprindo penas e medidas alternativas superou o número de pessoas presas no Brasil. Qual o lugar de políticas alternativas à pena de prisão num contexto de aumento da demanda punitiva? Na tentativa de construir uma resposta a essa questão, esse trabalho tem por objetivo analisar e sistematizar as diferentes alternativas à pena de prisão e ao processo penal implementadas no Brasil a partir de 1984. Para tanto, fez-se um levantamento da legislação produzida a partir de 1984 que criou alternativas à pena de prisão e ao processo penal, bem como dos projetos de “justiça restaurativa” fomentados pelo Ministério da Justiça a partir de 2005. Escolheu-se esse período em razão de em 1984 ter sido sancionada a Lei 7.209/84, que reformou a parte geral do Código Penal e introduziu a possibilidade de substituição das penas privativas de liberdade por penas restritivas de direitos. Ainda, buscou-se identificar pesquisas que tenham avaliado em âmbito nacional algumas dessas alternativas, bem como fazer uma síntese de seus resultados. A partir disso, evidenciamos a importância dessas políticas enquanto alternativas ao cárcere, mas também salientamos a necessidade de discussão e acompanhamento das práticas através das quais são implementadas para que possam contribuir para a redução da população carcerária no Brasil sem implicar em transferência de discursos e práticas punitivas “intra-muros” para o contexto “extra-muros”.

Finding common ground: restorative justice and its theoretical construction (s)

by Johannes Wheeldon

Building peace and security after genocide: The contribution of the gacaca courts of Rwanda

by Cori Wielenga

Co-authored with Geoff Harris, Head of the Department of Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies at the University of KwaZulu Natal.

After the three-month-long genocide in Rwanda in 1994 that left over a million dead, one of the pertinent questions in... more After the three-month-long genocide in Rwanda in 1994 that left over a million dead, one of the pertinent questions in Rwanda is whether peace and security can be established. The answer hinges on the crucial issues of justice and reconciliation. In the years following genocide, with some 800 000 perpetrators awaiting trial, the government's solution to this crisis of justice and the challenge of reconciling an ethnically divided nation was to revive a form of traditional justice called gacaca. In its traditional form, gacaca would be described as a restorative justice model, but this paper will argue that owing to various circumstances, the gacaca system as it is practised today leans more towards being retributive than restorative. This paper suggests that gacaca has nevertheless contributed positively to building justice and reconciliation – and thereby creating peace and security – in Rwanda.

Legitimation or Judgment? South Africa's Restorative Approach to Transitional Justice

by Bronwyn Leebaw

Que "paz" é essa? Os significados do conflito na cultura jurídica brasileira e a justiça restaurativa no Brasil

by Guilherme Augusto Dornelles de Souza

Co-autoria com Rodrigo Ghiringhelli de Azevedo.
Trabalho apresentado no XI Congresso Luso Afro Brasileiro de Ciências Sociais (2011)

Co-authored with Rodrigo Ghiringhelli de Azevedo.
Paper presented at the XI Portuguese-African-Brazilian Congress of Social Sciences (2011).

Será que acaba em samba? Reflexões sobre possíveis implicações da cultura jurídica brasileira para a implementação da justiça restaurativa no Brasil

by Guilherme Augusto Dornelles de Souza

Published in "Dilemas - Revista de Estudos de Conflito e Controle Social", 2011

"Will it End up in a Samba? Reflections on the possible implications of Brazilian juridical culture for the... more "Will it End up in a Samba? Reflections on the possible implications of Brazilian juridical culture for the implementation of restorative justice in brazil" discusses possible implications of legal culture for the implementation of restorative justice in Brazil. It presents a bibliographic review of Garland’s ideas about the relationship between culture and punishment, Kant de Lima’s thoughts on Brazilian legal culture, and the restorative justice according to some of the main authors of the theme. Restorative justice is identified as a stream of the cultural context of societies represented as egalitarian and individualistic, like the Anglo-Saxon nations. The way in which conflicts and individual responsibility may be conceived differently according to their cultural context is investigated as well as the impact of such for the implementation of restorative justice in Brazil.

Restorative Justice: Revisiting Punitive Interpretations of the Bible

by Brian Gumm

Presented at the "Student Learning and Global Justice" conference, co-hosted by the International Justice Mission and Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. April 8, 2011.

This paper will take an historical and narrative approach to address the restorative justice movement and its... more This paper will take an historical and narrative approach to address the restorative justice movement and its resonance with overarching biblical themes of justice and community. It will do so bycomparing the histories and assumptions of both the restorative justice movement and the criminal justice system. Finally, early Anabaptist experience will be examined as a way to see how thebeginnings of the restorative justice movement may have been conceivable centuries later.

Lessons for justice reinvestment from Restorative Justice and the Justice Model Experience

by Shadd Maruna

Restorative justice and social work

by katherine van wormer

Confronting oppression, restoring justice: From policy analysis to social action

by katherine van wormer

COMMuNITy reINTeGrATION MODeLs FOr ex-MILITIAs: LessONs FOr THe NIGer DeLTA AND OTHer DIVIDeD sOCIeTIes

by Don John Omale

Correcting Community Service: From Work Crews to Community Work in a Juvenile Court

by William Wood

In 2001, the Clark County Juvenile Court in Washington State implemented the use of “restorative community service”... more In 2001, the Clark County Juvenile Court in Washington State implemented the use of “restorative community service” (RCS) as part of its larger adoption of a restorative justice framework. This paper explores the court’s implementation and use of RCS, including: (1) the types of institutional changes made by the court in its development of RCS, (2) the types and qualities of social interactions observed by the researcher through participant observation at several RCS sites, (3) the practical implications of these findings for proponents of restorative justice in the use of community service in youth settings, and (4) the theoretical implications of these findings for sociological and criminological research on community service.

Presentación monográfica de Psicología Jurídica

by Eric García-López

Review of Margaret Urban Walker: Moral Repair. Reconstructing Moral Relations after Wrongdoing

by Arto Laitinen

Metapsychology Online. (Volume 11, Issue 19).

Project Restore: An Exploratory Study of Restorative Justice and Sexual Violence

by Shirley Julich