Book Review: Restorative Justice: Healing the Foundations of Our Everyday Lives Dennis Sullivan and Larry Tifft, Willow Tree Press, Monsey, New York, 2001. ISBN 1 881798 31 3, pp. 261. $19.50.; Restorative Justice: Ideas, Values, Debates. Gerry Johnstone, Willan Publishing, Cullompton, Devon, UK, 2001. ISBN 1 90324042 5, pp. 190. £16.99
| Author | Brian Williams |
| DOI | 10.1177/026975800100800313 |
| Published date | 01 September 2001 |
| Date | 01 September 2001 |
313
criminal justice system might also
be
somewhat frustrated. However,
as
an
introductory handbook for someone unfamiliar
with
such issues it does constitute
a sound and basic, if partial, introduction
to
the
underlying principles and
practices of restoration.
It
is
clear, unambiguous
and
well presented. It uses case
study examples throughout of circumstances
in
which
restoration has worked
as
a useful vehicle of support for
its
argument. These constitute its strengths.
It
does
proselytise however,
which
may
in
the end work against its central purpose.
Practitioners
new
to
these ideas
will
find
this
a
handy
booklet. Others will not
find
it
so
useful given
its
lack of critical edge -for practitioners enthusiastic
about such ideas still need
to
know
answers
to
questions like,
how,
where, when
and under
what
circumstances
is
restoration
the
appropriate response
to
offend-
ing behaviour?. Unfortunately,
and
the
case studies notwithstanding, answers
to
these questions
are
not developed.
All
of which,
given
the author,
is
perhaps a
little surprising.
Sandra Walklate
Professor of Sociology, Manchester Metropolitan University,
UK.
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: HEALING
THE
FOUNDATIONS
OF
OUR
EVERYDAY
LIVES
Dennis Sullivan and Larry Tifft,
Willow
Tree Press,
Mo_nsey,
New
York,
2001.
ISBN 1 881798
31
3,
pp.
261.
$19.50.
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: IDEAS,
VALUES,
DEBATES.
Gerry Johnstone, Willan Publishing, Cullompton,
Devon,
UK,
2001.
ISBN 1 903240 42
5,
pp.
190.
£16.99.
Sullivan
and
Tifft's book
is
not intended
to
offer practical advice
to
anyone
setting up a restorative justice project:
rather,
it
is
a polemic about the irrelevance
of
restorative justice
when
it
is
attempted
in
the
context of a punitive, revenge-
based criminal justice
system.
The authors' basic argument
is
that justice cannot
be achieved
by
disempowering
and
humiliating offenders, and that conventional
criminal justice fails because it
does
not
go
to
the
causes of antisocial behaviour.
They suggest that restorative principles could usefully
be
employed
much
more
widely than in dealing
with
crime,
for
example
in
schools
and
by
employers.
The book's style
is
rhetorical
and
argumentative. Sweeping statements are
often either unreferenced, or evidenced
with
quotations
from
newspaper articles,
TV programmes or political writers such
as
Kropotkin and Chomsky
as
often
as
references
to
restorative justice authorities.
It
is
also
an
untidy book,
with
a
good
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