ABSTRACT
The restorative justice movement not only believes to be more attuned with what people actually want and need in the aftermath of conflict, but also places a higher premium on establishing the connection with these preferences than the top-down approach it associates with current criminal justice practice. This highlights the importance of viewing restorative justice against the backdrop of its societal ecology. This chapter develops the way framing theory can be helpful in this respect, in understanding the development of restorative justice across jurisdictions. It adds the manner in which the movement itself frames its goals and views to achieve a fit with the environment and the acknowledgement that other frames are also available, in particular in the institutional meso-level environment of the movement. The chapter discusses key facets of the societal ecology in the Netherlands, which will lean heavily on the recent connection of the differential developments in countries' penology and criminal justice to neo-liberalism.
