ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a picture of restorative practice to dispel myths about its capacity to respond appropriately to criminal wrongdoing. Restorative practice in New Zealand has 'an ancient history through its connections with traditional Maori forms of conflict resolution'. Restorative forms of response were gradually and at the outset informally expanded to cover adult offenders from the mid-1990s onwards. However, each of the original pilot programs had other strongly focused restorative elements. The integration of restorative practice for adult offenders was given additional impetus by the legislative change introduced in 2002. A training program on restorative justice skills was delivered in a large number of locations in New Zealand in late 2000 with a view to promoting consistency in practice and procedure. Unlike New Zealand, Canada does not have a nationwide form of restorative response. The Collaborative Justice Project (CJP) in Ottawa has had a long history of applying restorative approaches to objectively 'serious offending'.
