Restorative justice and the culture of control
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Author | Gerry Johnstone |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12461 |
Received: 24 May 2021 Accepted: 11 October 2021
DOI: 10.1111/ho jo.12461
SPECIAL ISSUE
Restorative justice and the culture of control
Gerry Johnstone
Professor of Law, University of Hull
Email:j.g.johnstone@hull.ac.uk
Abstract
A profound change has occurred, during the last half
century, in patterns and strategiesfor handling crime in
modern societies. During the same period, the campaign
for restorative justice has increasingly influenced penal
policy and practice. In stories about correctional change,
these developments are often linked by suggestions that
the success of the campaign for restorative justice puts
in question notions that we are experiencing relentless
penal regression. This article argues for a different nar-
rative, in which the rise of restorative justice is located
within a broader disenchantment with large-scale, insti-
tutionalised ways of handling crime.
KEYWORDS
culture of control, destructuring, emotions and justice, penal
regression, restorative justice
1 INTRODUCTION
About half a century ago, a ‘master change’ in patterns and strategies for handling crime began
(Cohen, 1985, pp.13–29; Garland, 2001a). The question addressed by this article is that of how the
campaign for restorative justice – which also emerged about half a century ago (Johnstone, 2011)–
should be fitted into stories of this transformation.1Theanswer depends, of course, upon how both
the master change that has taken place and the campaign for restorative justice are characterised.
The article outlines two answers to the question posed. The first – discussed under the heading
‘penal regression and the rise of restorative justice’ – is quite common. I will suggest, however,
that it is unsatisfactory. First, it reduces the complex changes that have occurred in patterns and
strategies for handling crime to a single theme, such as penal regression, penal populism or harsh
justice. Second, it also reduces the complex campaign for restorative justice to a single theme:
© 2022 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Howard J. Crim. Justice. 2022;61:23–38. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hojo 23
24 THE HOWARDJOURNAL OF CRIME AND JUSTICE
restorative justice as an alternative to retributive or punitive justice. As a result, the campaign
for restorative justice is interpreted and presented somewhat uncritically as one that offers an
alternative to penal excess and therefore ‘renewed hope and optimism for progressive change in
criminal justice, despite a continuing conservate landscape’ (Daly, 2012, p.356).
The article then proposes and sketches a second answer to the question posed. This starts
with a brief account, drawn from Cohen (1985), of the ‘destructuring impulse’ that emerged in
the 1960s, which included a range of delegalisation and informalism movements (Cohen, 1985,
pp.31–35). Cohen posits a complex relationship between this destructuring impulse and the
change in the pattern of handling crime that eventually took place. He shows that the actual
change that occurred was in the opposite direction of that intended by the destructuring impulse:
‘Instead of any destructuring .. . the original structures have become stronger’ (p.37). Yet at the
same time, the destructuring impulse was somehow implicated, in Cohen’s account, in bringing
about the changes that did occur. He describes the destructuring impulse as a Trojanhorse (p.38)
which unintentionally helped bring about an expansion and intensification of the social control
system.
The article then shows that the campaign for restorative justice had roots in, inter alia, the
destructuring impulse described by Cohen.2This draws our attention to the campaign’s professed
antipathy, not just towards punishment, but towards professionalism, formality, bureaucracy,
institutionalisation, reliance upon experts, and so on. Further,it draws our attention to some of the
populist themes of destructuring ideologies which the campaign for restorative justice has inher-
ited and perpetuated: ‘small is beautiful, people are not machines, experts don’t know everything,
bureaucracies are anti-human, institutions are unnatural and bad, the community is natural and
good’ (Cohen, 1985, p.35). The article goes on to show that one aspect of rational, bureaucratic
justice to which the campaign for restorative justice is particularly averse is its tendency to sup-
press emotional expression within the criminal justice process. At least in its early days, a key
goal of the campaign for restorative justice, the article shows, was to bring about a shift towards
more informal criminal justice processes in which the expression of emotions by participants is
encouraged and facilitated. While this goal has become somewhat modified as the campaign has
developed (Karstedt & Rossner,2019) – and the rhetorical denouncement of rational-bureaucratic
justice toned down a little – an understanding of it remains important for thinking about how the
emergence of restorative justice fits within broader changes in patterns of crime control.3
One implication of this repositioning of the campaign for restorative justice, with regard to
broader transformations that have occurred in patterns and strategies for handling crime, is that
it becomes much harder to interpret restorative justice as a simple antidote or alternative to the
culture of control, i.e., to the distinctive way of handling crime and criminals that has emerged
in the last half century (Garland, 2001a). Rather, the article argues, in important respects, the
campaign for restorative justice typifies the ways of thinking and acting upon crime that are char-
acteristic of the culture of control.
2 PENAL REGRESSION AND THE RISE OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
A common theme in stories of correctional change is that, sometime around the 1970s, the
progress of penal reform halted and, indeed, went into reverse. Followinga couple of centuries of
humanitarian and moral progress – during which the penal methods of modern societies became
much less barbaric and violent – we entered a period of penal regression (Radzinowicz, 1991).4
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting