Restorative Justice - Restorative Practices

The Restorative Practices (RP) concept has its roots in RJ. RP is an emerging field of practice and study devoted to building social capital and achieving social discipline through participatory learning and decision-making. RP ties together theory, research and practice in fields such as education, counseling, criminal justice, social work and organizational management. The unifying hypothesis of restorative practices is that human beings are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive behavioural changes when others do things with them (via collaboration), rather than to them (via coercion) or for them (via independent action).

In criminal justice, RP circles and conferences allow involved parties to resolve offenses collaboratively. In social work, RP family group decision-making (FGDM) and FGC support collaboration within families, e.g., to protect children. In education, student circles and groups collaborate to peacefully resolve disputes.

The criminal justice field uses the phrase "restorative justice"; social workers say "empowerment"; educators prefer "positive discipline" or "the responsive classroom"; while leadership consultants choose "horizontal management".

RP is spreading in multiple countries, in education, criminal justice, family and youth and-serving and workplace applications.

RJ has not currently succeeded when applied to drug offences, sexual assault and domestic violence. South Australia and New Zealand have attempted RJ with juvenile sexual offenders.

Indigenous regions of Canada have tentatively implemented circle sentencing to deal with domestic violence. Advocates believe that it may be applicable to these indigenous communities because it relates to traditional cultural values of restoring balance in the community. In addition, First Nations have low regard for the local (punitive) court system, in which their people are over-represented in court and in prison.

Since 2000, Kahnawake, a Kanien’kehá:ka reserve, has introduced the use of restorative justice to intervene before an arrest occurs, and to prevent one. Feeling ill-served by the adversarial Canadian system, the community is particularly interested in incorporating restorative justice to work with its younger members and help prevent future offenses. Some Native American nations have also begun to adopt Restorative Justice practices; the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation is planning a tribal justice center to include a courtroom for Restorative Justice.