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In
recent years there have
been developments
in the arena of Criminal
Justice prompting those
dealing with youth crime
in particular to review
their approach. Different
strands are coming
together from different
parts of the world, as
described by Martin Wright
in his book 'Restoring
Respect for Justice'.
(Wright 1999) He
highlights early
victim/offender mediation
that grew from an
initiative in Ontario,
Canada and has now spread
from there, via the United
States to Europe. He also
makes reference to
'conferencing' - a meeting
of the extended families
of both victims and
offenders, developed from
the interaction of Western
and Indigenous peoples in
New Zealand and Canada. A
third strand involves a
theoretical study by John
Braithwaite (Braithwaite
1989) who was considering
the impact of a 'reintegrative
shaming process' in which
offenders have their
behaviour disapproved of
by those close to them but
who can nevertheless be
supported in reparation
and re-integration back
into the community.
Different 'Restorative
Justice Approaches' are
being developed around the
world in response to local
situations but as Wright
says:
'A family of theories
is evolving. Different
aspects and methods are
emphasised, but there is a
common underlying
philosophy; the
Restorative Justice
Consortium (1999) has
drawn up a definition and
standards, and guidelines
for good practice have
been drawn up in Britain
and Germany (Mediation UK,
1998; Serviceburo, 1998).'
My
inspiration for work in
schools has come
from a number of sources.
One of the first theorists
in the field of
Restorative Justice,
Howard Zehr, the Director
of the first
Victim/Offender
Reconciliation Programme
in the United States, drew
up a paradigm in which he
compared traditional
retributive justice
philosophy with
restorative justice values
and ideas (1990). When I
first discovered this I
could see immediate
parallels with approaches
to behaviour management in
schools and I re-wrote the
paradigm with a schools
focus.
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