Definition
Restorative justice is an approach to wrongdoing that asks who was harmed, what they need, and whose obligations these needs create — rather than which law was broken, by whom, and what punishment is deserved. It treats crime as a rupture in human relationships first, and a violation of law second.
The contemporary frame draws on Nils Christie's argument that the state has stolen conflict from those it concerns, and on John Braithwaite's theory of reintegrative shaming. Practice forms include victim-offender mediation, family group conferences, and circle sentencing, each bringing affected parties into structured dialogue.
Why it matters
How it works
A restorative process brings the people affected by an incident — those harmed, those responsible, and supporting community members — into a facilitated meeting. Participants describe what happened, what the impact has been, and what is needed to make things right. The outcome is an agreement: an apology, reparation, behaviour change, or a combination, monitored by the community.
Empirical evaluations show modest but consistent reductions in reoffending for some categories of case and clear gains in victim satisfaction. Critics worry about power imbalances, the limits of dialogue with serious harms, and the risk of net-widening when restorative practices are added on top of formal sanctions rather than diverting cases away from them.