ABSTRACT
Introduction It is probably realistic to say that restorative justice ‘has possibly been the most infl uential development in “crime control” in the past decade’ (Crawford and Newburn, 2003: 38) . Rather than traditional forums that rely on judges to sentence offenders and, where appropriate, punishment is imposed by the state, restorative justice seeks to place greater emphasis upon, and give a role to, the victim of crime and the wider community. In addition, restorative justice also emphasises the importance of repair or reparation by the offender to the victim or, more broadly, to the community. As such, restorative justice harks back to earlier times when responding to crime was much more a communitybased responsibility.
