ABSTRACT
This chapter considers developments in criminal sentencing jurisprudence in a number of jurisdictions predominantly New Zealand and Canada, to gauge the influence of an exposure to restorative justice principles and practices on the criminal law's response to wrongdoing. Traditionally, criminal justice jurisprudence had prioritized retributive elements designed to provide an 'authoritative condemnation of the class of behaviours' proscribed by the criminal law. In New Zealand, the then small-scale use of restorative responses to wrongdoing in its criminal courts was judicially approved by the New Zealand Court of Appeal in 1998 in the decision of R v Clotworthy. The decision in Clotworthy provided a strong guiding principle on restorative justice in New Zealand. The offender pleaded guilty and the court delayed sentencing in order to allow the defendant's request to participate in a restorative justice conference facilitated by a community-based group.
