Book Review: Critical Issues in Restorative Justice
| Author | Jo O’Mahoney |
| DOI | 10.1177/1466802505053498 |
| Published date | 01 May 2005 |
| Date | 01 May 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Howard Zehr and Barb Toews (eds)
Critical Issues in Restorative Justice
Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press, 2004. 413 pp. £25.00
ISBN 1–88179–851–8 (pbk)
•Reviewed by Jo O’Mahoney, University of Kent, UK
As the influence of restorative justice on criminal justice expands, committed
restorative justice advocates are recognizing the need for a more critical
approach in order to compare the vision against the reality. Howard Zehr and
Barb Toews believe that if restorative justice is to retain its integrity then threats
to its ‘soul’ must be confronted. Restorative justice might, for example, have
unintended consequences that compromise its veracity or it may retain its
integrity but be marginalized and ineffective. To this end Zehr and Toews have
invited an international group of writers to contribute a critical perspective
through addressing a set of questions about restorative justice.
The book appears, at first glance, to be overly ambitious in the range of
‘critical issues’ related to restorative justice, which it covers in 31 chapters.
However each chapter is brief and addresses very specific issues, which are
likely to be raised by practitioners or students. These questions are helpfully
included in the Appendix. The book is divided into six main sections: principles
and concepts; stakeholder issues; governments and systems; practice and
practitioners; indigenous and religious traditions; and social justice. Each part
also has a short introduction describing the scope of the topic and, because the
intention is that the book should make a contribution to an ongoing dialogue,
each chapter ends with a correspondence address.
One of the strengths of this book is that it not only includes some of the key
theorists and researchers in criminology and criminal justice, but also an
interesting range of writers who have experienced restorative justice at grass-
roots level. The result is a useful collection of ideas, which is likely to
contribute to both theoretical and policy debates.
Part 1 explores the problems and possibilities that emerge from the lack of
a standard definition of restorative justice. An interesting contribution is a
chapter by Val Napoleon, who writes from the perspective of a member of an
aboriginal community. She asks ‘who defines restorative justice?’. She chal-
lenges a Western model of reality, which, she suggests, is a model of the cause
BOOK REVIEWS
197
Criminal Justice
© 2005 SAGE Publications
London, Thousand Oaks
and New Delhi.
www.sagepublications.com
1466–8025; Vol: 5(2): 197–205
DOI: 10.1177/1466802505053498
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