ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the similarities between crime and internal armed conflict, and links the two as suitable for restorative justice strategies. Alternative forms of dispute resolution, such as mediation and community justice are outlined, as is restorative justice across the levels of principle, values and implementation. The advantages and limits of restorative justice are also discussed. Research has revealed that there exists evidence, albeit contested, to support restorative processes as effective when used in some instances of severe and violent crimes, those that are common during civil war scenarios. In the civil war in Bosnia in the early 1990s the underground criminal economy was an integral part of the conduct of the war. Human communities have long held resources from within to deal with strife. One alternative, then, to the coercive response of state agencies to deviance and disorder is 'community justice'.
