ABSTRACT
The modern restorative justice (RJ) movement aims to address some of the inequities by giving voice; power and choice back to the communities in which the crime or painful conflict took place. This chapter argues that most modern RJ practices inadvertently mirror and exacerbate existing power dynamics, and, in some instances, even create new artificial power hierarchies that were not previously present. It describes the ways these power dynamics manifest at three ecological levels: These ecological levels are dynamic and interactive, and power dynamics manifesting at any level affect the others. The chapter offers strategies and recommendations that can help counterbalance these power dynamics at multiple levels of the system. It facilitates a community-based restorative process developed in the Brazilian favelas by Dominic Barter and associates called Restorative Circles. It uses racial status in the United States of America (USA) to illustrate how one kind of implicit bias may operate in one particular global context.
