Commandment, commencement and restorative justice
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Author | George Pavlich |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12462 |
Received: 10 March 2021 Accepted: 15 November 2021
DOI: 10.1111/ho jo.12462
SPECIAL ISSUE
Commandment, commencement and
restorative justice
George Pavlich
Henry Marshall Tory Chair, Professor of
Sociology,, University of Alberta, Canada
Correspondence
GeorgePavlich, Henry Marshall Tory
Chair,Professor of Sociology,University of
Alberta,Canada.
Email:gpavlich@ualberta.ca
Abstract
Early restorative justice archives challenged state crimi-
nalisation through three basic pledges – diversion, social
transformation, and decolonisation – thereby inaugurat-
ing a movement against repressive state criminalisation
and announcing a new paradigm of justice. Returning
to that movement’s beginning, this article shows how its
global successes were secured through intimate ties with
state justice that diluted its early pledges. Highlight-
ing oft-overlooked insights from legal pluralism, it calls
for new articulations between semi-autonomous jus-
tice fields to revitalise, and not simply recover, restora-
tive foundations. Forging links with diverse social fields,
and engaging a politics of accusation, restorative justice
could recraft lenses that bring harm-producing social
assemblies into focus.
KEYWORDS
criminal accusation, criminal justice, legal pluralism, restorative
justice
1 INTRODUCTION
A social phenomenon emerged in the 1970s around varied calls for ‘neighbourhood’, ‘popular’,
‘community,’‘informal’, and ‘restorative’ justice. Records of this event– its multifaceted archive –
announced unique ‘origin myths’ (Daly,2002) that promoted restorative norms, values, and prac-
tices directed against the retributive, alienating ‘formalities’ of criminal procedure (see Elliott &
Gordon, 2005; Johnstone, 2013;Popa,2012; Zehr et al., 2015). Such enunciations actively declared
© 2022 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Howard J. Crim. Justice. 2022;61:9–22. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hojo 9
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