Restorative and Community Justice in the United States

Abstract

Restorative and community justice are becoming increasingly popular. Although both are conceptually ambiguous and overlapping, they have distinctive core elements and are separate movements. Restorative justice is based on values that promote repairing harm, healing, and rebuilding relations among victims, the offenders, and the communities. Community justice views crime as a social problem that affects life in communities and suggests that prevention is an essential part of all criminal justice agencies' work. Both share goals of community participation, empowerment, and development. It is unclear whether restorative justice 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. However, limited results reflect more the inadequacies of evaluation research to date than the nonfeasibility of restorative and community justice concepts and goals.

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