Abstract This paper is the first of two companion papers that analyse themes of existing best practice frameworks for restorative justice and explore the processes and experiences of the people who created them. This work is part of a broader collaboration between the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice ( NACRJ ) and the National Center on Restorative Justice ( NCORJ ) in the United States. This paper explores publicly available guidelines for facilitating restorative justice processes in response to harm. Data for this paper come from a thematic analysis of five United States-based regional or statewide practitioner guidelines documents and seven international guidelines documents. The guidelines included in this paper pertain to facilitating responsive restorative justice dialogues that relate to or may take place in criminal legal settings. The thematic analysis explores and identifies guidelines’ priorities across regions, examining common principles and practices identified as important for restorative justice facilitators.

Abstract This paper is the second of two companion papers exploring best practice frameworks for restorative justice. This paper draws on interviews and focus groups with restorative justice practitioners and researchers who were part of drafting guideline documents. Section one outlines five key tensions that commonly arise in the process of creating best practice guidelines: (1) Aligning with Priorities: Systems-Based to Community-Driven, (2) Balancing Scope: Universal to Context-Specific, (3) Regulating Practice: Guidance to Mandate, (4) Supporting Facilitator Learning: Formal Training to Lived Experience and (5) Maintaining Relevance Over Time: Living Document to Foundational Document. Section two discusses the processes of creating guidelines, drawing on examples from three communities that collectively created their best practice guidelines documents. The intention in sharing these process insights and common tensions is to support communities interested in engaging in a process to generate their own best practice guidelines.

Abstract This study considers equitable systems design for restorative justice in the United States criminal legal system, focusing on the challenges of addressing broader systemic, structural and historical inequities. Building on insights from a 2023 event co-hosted by the National Center on Restorative Justice ( NCORJ ) and UC Law, San Francisco, this research analyses podcast interviews with facilitators from the event. Five key themes emerge as central to equitable systems design for restorative justice: (1) upholding restorative justice fidelity and navigating risks of co-optation, (2) ensuring equitable access to restorative justice, (3) considering how to measure success, (4) identifying and addressing bias through individual and community reflection and (5) the need for policy and advocacy. For each theme, challenges and suggestions are explored. The findings emphasise the importance of integrating systemic equity into restorative practices and policies, cautioning against replicating existing inequities within restorative justice frameworks.

ABSTRACT This article outlines four pillars of restorative pedagogy, drawing on relevant literature as well as collective learning distilled through a reflective circle process held by the authors during a course called Teaching Restorative Justice at Vermont Law and Graduate School. The four pillars are (1) prioritizing relationships, (2) practicing self-reflection, (3) cultivating dialogue that unearths social systems of oppression, and (4) utilizing strategies for creative and experiential engagement. These four pillars generate a space that promotes a deep integration of class material and activates the community toward social change. The authors reflect on their experience sharing a classroom community as students and professor and on the impact of these pillars on cultivating education as a practice of freedom.

Restorative justice is an innovative approach to responding to crime and conflict that shifts the focus away from laws and punishment to instead consider the harm caused and what is needed to repair that harm and make things right. Interest in restorative justice is rapidly expanding, with new applications continuously emerging around the world. The restorative philosophy and conference process have shown great promise in providing a justice response that heals individuals and strengthens the community. Still, a few key questions remain unanswered. First, how is the personal and relational transformation apparent in the restorative justice process achieved? What can be done to safeguard and enhance that effectiveness? Second, can restorative justice satisfy the wider public’s need for a reaffirmation of communal norms following a crime, particularly in comparison to the criminal trial? And finally, given its primary focus on making amends at an interpersonal level, does restorative justice routinely fail to address larger, structural injustices? This book engages with these three critical questions through an understanding of restorative justice as a ritual. It proffers three dominant ritual functions related to the performance of justice: the normative, the transformative, and the proleptic. Two justice rituals, namely, the criminal trial and the restorative justice conference, are examined through this framework in order to understand how each process fulfills, or fails to fulfill, the multifaceted human need for justice. The book will be of interest to students, academics, and practitioners working in the areas of Restorative Justice, Criminal Law, and Criminology.

Teaching restorative practices through games: an experiential and relational restorative pedagogy This article argues for the use of games as an effective and dynamic way to teach restorative practices. Grounded in an understanding of restorative pedagogy, a paradigm of teaching in alignment with restorative values and principles, as well as experiential learning strategies, this article introduces games as a way for students to experience and more deeply understand restorative practices while building relationships and skills. Personal accounts of the authors about the impact of using games to teach restorative practices in their own communities are also included.

This article describes the development, implementation, and outcomes of the Sustained Restorative Dialogue process piloted at Victoria University of Wellington in 2018. The Sustained Restorative Dialogue explored the issue of sexual harm and harassment on campus. It was a ‘sustained’ dialogue in that it was run over four sessions with the same participants. It was a ‘restorative’ dialogue in that it was held in a circle format and the conversation moved in sequential sessions through the main steps of a restorative analysis – What is happening? What are the impacts? What is needed to make things right? The aim of the dialogue was to examine the broader climate that gives rise to sexual harm in the campus setting and beyond, and to explore possible solutions. The model provided a structure for breaking down a complex issue and a space to explore practical ways to strive for a healthier culture, both on campus and in wider society. The process yielded a number of positive outcomes both for participants as individuals and as a larger group, suggesting the implementation of the model in universities could contribute to transforming the climate that gives rise to sexual harm.

This article charts Victoria University of Wellington's progress in implementing restorative practices, including restorative justice as a response to conflicts and rule violations, and proactive measures, including circles as a way to build a positive culture rooted in restorative principles. Survey results indicate positive outcomes including better communication, increased accountability, and a greater emphasis on relationships. Areas for further growth are also identified, including the need for a wider spread understanding of restorative approaches among staff, faculty, and students, the importance of full-university implementation, and the need for learners to experience a restorative process to understand the impact.

This paper examines the progress of Victoria University of Wellington towards becoming a Restorative University. Both reactive measures, including restorative justice as a response to conflicts and rule violations, and proactive measures, including the circle process as a way to build a positive culture rooted in restorative principles, are discussed. The article suggests that Victoria University has developed a framework for building a restorative community that can be adopted in other universities.

Implemented after a crime occurs, restorative justice conferences create a transformational space where victim and offender can move from feelings of enmity towards reconciliation and healing, and where the community can be repaired. This paper is an analysis of restorative justice conferences through the theoretical lenses of religious studies, in an endeavour to better understand the transformational space created by these conferences. Mircea Eliade's comparative approach allows for a comparison between the transformative space of restorative justice conferences and processes and structures yielding similar space. An analysis through Victor Turner's theoretical lens reveals the way in which restorative justice conferences closely resemble religious ritual through the presence of liminality and communitas. The utilisation of the Emile Durkheim functionalist lens allows for the functional similarities of restorative justice conferences to religious ritual to be highlighted.

As William Everett notes, “Symbols and rituals are indispensable for our efforts to contain, transform, and resolve conflicts.” For this reason, the performance of justice is highly ritualized. Two contemporary examples of this performance are the mainstream criminal trial and the restorative justice conference, each of which has a distinct ritual structure. This thesis explores these two ritual structures and how they fulfill, or fail to fulfill, the multifaceted human need for justice. By employing ritual theory in respect to these two justice performances, an analytical framework will be developed that describes how each ritual’s process affects its function. Theories of ritual are specifically concerned with the functions that rituals have in society. This thesis proffers three dominant ritual functions related to the performance of justice: the normative, the transformative, and the proleptic. Rituals have a normative function when they provide a sense of safety and security through establishing a set way of doing things and reaffirming communal values. Transformative rituals offer a means of attaining significant and sustainable change at personal and relational levels. Proleptic rituals are capable of envisioning and temporarily creating a different possible societal future by generating social and power relationships that can challenge the status quo. Not every ritual performance is oriented to achieving these various functions, yet it will be argued that the nature of justice demands attention to all three. This thesis applies this analytical framework of the various functions of rituals to two justice performances: the criminal trial and restorative justice. It proposes that while the criminal trial fulfills the normative function through upholding laws and associated values, it commonly falls short of creating the conditions for personal or relational transformation, nor does it anticipate a future where a greater measure of justice is achieved. By contrast, it is common for restorative justice conferences to result in transformative outcomes for participants and to provide a foretaste of a more just social order, inasmuch as they subvert hegemonic power arrangements. By advancing our understanding of the ritualistic features of justice, this thesis can help to answer three prominent questions that have beleaguered the restorative justice field. First, how is the personal and relational transformation apparent in the restorative justice process achieved? This will be addressed through an application of the theories of ritual put forth by Victor Turner and Émile Durkheim to the restorative justice process in order to better understand and describe its transformative function. Second, can restorative justice have a normative impact that satisfies the wider public, particularly in comparison to the criminal trial? This criticism will be considered in light of a normative ritual framework along with the alternative structures that have been suggested to remedy this issue. Finally, given its primary focus on making amends at an interpersonal level, does restorative justice routinely fail to address larger, structural injustices? By examining the expansion of restorative justice from a justice reform mechanism to a wider social movement, I will argue that the proleptic function of the restorative justice ritual has played a key role in this expansion by temporarily creating a “restorative society in miniature” that participants often emerge with a desire to experience again and extend to others, thereby enlarging the original scope of the restorative justice intervention.