ABSTRACT
Restorative justice (RJ) is a particular mode of responding to criminality that explicitly invokes an ideology of “doing justice.” The proponents of RJ began advocating its virtues and urging its application in the 1970s and while modes of RJ exist in the U.S. and in other countries, RJ has yet to make substantial inroads into formal justice systems. In the U.S., forms of RJ, particularly Victim Offender Mediation (VOM), have been embraced as part of the movement toward victim support and advocacy. RJ has been able to align itself with forms of dispute settlement such as mediation and with the victims’ rights movement as part of a wider social exploration of how justice might best be realized (Crawford and Newburn 2003: 20).
