The Role of Community in Restorative Justice

Restorative justice is a process that seeks to create dialogue between offenders and victims as well as between communities where clashing norms and practices create conflict. The goal of restorative justice is to is to give voice to stories of harm told by both parties in the interest of creating dialogue, allowing the nature of damages to be explored and reconciliation to be sought. While this process is familiar in criminal justice circles where offenders and crime victims are brought together, it also has been important in political and community conflict situations where there is a need to allow opposing groups to meet, voice their experiences, and seek reconciliation.

Traditionally restorative justice tends to focus on trauma, the long-term emotional consequences of trauma, the need for offenders to recognize and acknowledge harm they have caused, as well as the possibilities for healing relationships between offenders and their victims. This frames the problem and its solutions in individualistic, psychological terms. In fact, many offences occur within a community context, arising from oppressive racial and socio-economic conditions. They may be caused by societal conflicts and political struggles, as in Northern Ireland. They also may arise from clashes of norm, where traditional practices in one community cross boundaries, violate sacred beliefs, and require members of the other community to deal with consequences and perhaps to manage damages, seen in the clash between Amish Midwives and OB/GYN hospital doctors who must manage emergencies during dangerous births.

Restorative justice can be understood as a clash between criminal law and civil law. In criminal law, offences are considered to be attacks on the state. The state is presented as the legal opponent of the offender. In this framework, there is little place for the victim. In civil law, individuals who are offended against, seek retribution and go to the court to serve as an arbiter. This all happens in a context where there are formally created laws and regulations and where a state institution exists to mediate conflicts.

In less formal situations, communities develop norms based in history and traditions as well as in the informal relations of community life. When offenses and damages occur, the community as a whole may act as the arbiter. For this to happen the collective may have to work to discern what norms actually are consensual, and then the community may have to decide to act to control misbehaviour or resolve disputes. This is the restorative justice process.

We see self-conscious restorative justice programs in Derry and Northern Ireland, as part of efforts to allow members of the Nationalist and Loyalist communities to describe harms and experiences of causing harm. We see them in discussions between Amish home birth practitioners and hospital-based OB-GYN practitioners in the United States. We also see them in closed, religious communities where there are high levels of child sexual abuse and where community members and outsiders work to acknowledge and resolve this problem.

We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
• Case studies of successful community-level interventions in restorative justice
• Theoretical discussions on the role of community dynamics in fostering offenses
• Discussions of community processes that foster reconciliation and mutual acknowledgement of harm
• Policy analyses examining restorative justice as an alternative to traditional criminal justice systems
• Literature reviews exploring community-based restorative justice practices and their effectiveness
• Insights into the role of storytelling and public acknowledgment in restorative justice processes
• Processes by which offenders acknowledge responsibility for harm and engage in self-transformation

This Research Topic accepts case studies, literature reviews, theoretical discussions, and policy analyses. Examples of community-level interventions include A. Boehm and H. Itzhaky's "The Social Marketing Approach: A Way to Increase Reporting and Treatment of Sexual Assault" and T. Sepinuck's Theatre of Witness: Finding the Meaning in Stories of Suffering, Transformation, and Peace.