Book review: Restorative Justice in Urban Schools Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline
| Published date | 01 January 2018 |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758017738378 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
readers to explore the issues associated with cybercrime in more depth and one hopes that those
involved in trying to remedy cyberwrongs will also be informed by what they encounter within this
collection. This accessible text will have universal appeal and will certainly be making an appear-
ance in my teaching of undergraduate criminologists.
References
Grabosky PN (2001) Virtual criminality: Old wine in new bottles. Social and Legal Studies 10(2): 243–249.
Anita Wadhwa, with Foreword by Brenda Morrison
Restorative Justice in Urban Schools Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Routledge. New York, 2016 170pp.; ISBN 978-1-315-69282 -1 (eBook)
Reviewed by: Vanessa Lynn, State University of New York, USA
DOI: 10.1177/0269758017738378
Restorative Justice in Urban Schools: Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline is a breath of fresh
air and a much-needed critical evaluation of restorative justice practices. This book examines
urban schools as sites ‘conjoined with and complicit to our current peculiar institution’ (p.24) and
assesses whether and how restorative justice, used as a philosophy and a practice—not merely as a
program—contributes to changing the punitive paradigm of zero tolerance policies. It understands
the School-to-Prison Pipeline as the ‘phenomenon in which students who are repeatedly suspended
and expelled have an increased likelihood of dropping out of school and ending up in the justice
system’ (p.3). As such, the book is an important contribution for those interested in the movement
to end and/or reverse the phenomenon of mass incarceration.
Wadhwa uses an ethnographic methodology called ‘portraiture,’ in which portraitists counter
the tendency toward negativity by searching for ‘goodness’ in their research setting. Learning
about portraiture ethnography methodology was inspiring to me. There is a general tendency in
urban ethnography and urban sociology to focus on crime, poverty, and segregation in the repre-
sentation of African American communities, which emphasizes the deficits and negative aspects of
these communities. Through the examination of restorative justice in urban schools, Wadhwa does
a wonderful job of offering an alternative approach, i.e. a strength-based approach, which shows
the ‘goodness’ of building and sustaining urban communities through the use of restorative
practices.
The author chose two sites in the Boston public schools: Bridge and Equity high schools. She
spent more than 100 hours between the Fall of 2009 and Spring of 2010 at these sites, observed and
participated in 35 and 25 circles at each site respectively, sat in various classrooms, and conducted
interviews with 38 participants (5 teachers, 4 administrators, 1 school resources officer, and 8
students at Bridge; 5 teachers, 3 administrator s, and 11 students at Equity) and had informal
conversations (p.35). Suffice to say that owing to her extensive ethnographic research, the book
is a major contribution to the critical evaluation of restorative justice practices.
Through the use of extensive quotes and brilliantly detailed and nuanced descriptions of circles,
the reader is easily hooked. Wadhwa shows how teachers use their own circles, involving role-
play, for professional development. She portrays the magic that can happen when students mend
Book reviews 143
To continue reading
Request your trial