Mountain biking is like restorative justice in an important way. Each is a practice on focusing on where we want to go.
In mountain biking on narrow single-track trails with steep drops on the side of a mountain, you have to focus on where you want to go. You look down the trail in front of [...]

Randy Cohen, The Ethicist, who writes an insightful and often humorous column for the New York Times Magazine, made a good case for using restorative justice recently.  He answered a question asked by a restaurant manager if he should call the police on a server who was caught stealing.  Mr. Cohen said no!  He pointed [...]

“Not everyone’s wounds will heal” after being victimized by crime, an experienced judge says.  This is true.  Some people will never heal.  Restorative justice is not a panacea that will heal every single person’s wounds suffered from being a crime victim.  Restorative justice offers only the opportunity for healing, not a guarantee, but we know [...]

Professor and author Howard Zehr, commonly referred to as the grandfather of the modern restorative justice movement, has written a list of ten ways to live restoratively in his November 27, 2009 blog: http://emu.edu/blog/restorative-justice/2009/11/27/10-ways-to-live-restoratively/
Professor Zehr’s landmark book Changing Lenses is one of the first books I read about restorative justice about 15 years ago.  Since [...]

Restorative justice values the voice of victims and works to protects their rights.  Another sad example of how our retributive justice system works to re-victimize victims, is the story of a woman whose voice was not heard or valued by the system.
The woman was 13 years old in 1977 when charges were brought against movie [...]