Restorative justice from a children’s rights perspective

Overview

This book addresses the relationship between restorative justice and children’s rights, an issue of increasing relevance to restorative justice theory and practice that has thus far received relatively little attention. Readers will find useful reviews of international human rights documents and of legislation, policy and practices in countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, North America, and Oceania. Each of the chapters demonstrates the compatibility between children’s rights and restorative justice. Adopting a rights-based approach is an important means for countries that are interested in further developing restorative justice practices, as it helps restorative processes that are new to the juvenile justice system to gain credibility as well as safeguard young participants’ rights in these processes. In countries where restorative justice has been developed, a rights approach can stimulate innovation and applications beyond the child justice system. The book focuses on both needs and rights of children and young people who caused harm or suffered harm. Some chapters also adopt a critical point of view to explore the tensions between rights and restorative justice in relation to colonisation, welfare models, and professional privilege.

Studies in Restorative Justice
Restorative justice offers a unique approach to crime and victimisation and a change of course from the traditional preoccupation with retribution and transgression of rules in the criminal justice system. This book series aspires to highlight the many accomplishments achieved through the use of restorative justice practices in response to crime and social conflict. It is a collection of groundbreaking theoretical essays on the principles, uses and versatility of restorative justice as well as state-of-the-art empirical research into the implementation of restorative justice practices, experiences in these programmes and evaluation of its impact on victim recovery, reoffending and community capacity building. Contributors include established scholars and promising new scholars.