Restoring Respect For Justice FIRST EDITION

Description

An innovative work in the form of a ‘symposium’ at which ‘presenters’ talk about crime, offending, victims and related matters – then answer searching questions from the audience. It includes a review of psychological literature on punishment, and controversially questions the basis of sentencing. This unique and original approach is the medium for Martin Wright ‘s survey of modern-day developments in the field of restorative justice, including close examination of issues of concern to victims, offenders, courts, mediators and restorative justice practitioners.

A must for anyone interested in restorative justice or dealing with victim/offender issues – including politicians! This extraordinary book describes ‘A Symposium’ at which a range of presenters (a politician, judge, psychologist, probation officer, mediator etc.) talk about crime, criminal offending and victims and answer questions from their audience.

This highly innovative approach is the vehicle for Martin Wright’s survey of developments in the field of Restorative Justice, including a close examination of issues of concern to victims, offenders, courts, mediators and criminal justice practitioners making Restoring Respect for Justice a must for anyone concerned with these issues.

The work challenges many assumptions about criminal justice, one key theme being that if society (including law and justice) does not ensure that people are respected as individuals then they will not respect the property or person of others – or the law. Neither is the present system designed to show sufficient respect for victims which again serves to undermine respect for it.

Reviews

‘This book merits wide circulation and reading and it is easily understandable for non-experts in the field of criminal justice… It should be available to those training for work in the Criminal Justice System’: Julia Flack, Crucible

‘Clearly opens up an exciting and topical area of debate’: The Justices’ Clerk

‘This book should be compulsory reading for anyone working, however remotely, in the criminal justice field… quite simply I could not put it down’: The Magistrate

Author

Martin Wright is a former Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Policy Officer of Victim Support, and Librarian of the Cambridge Institute of Criminology. He is a Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, and the author of Making Good: Prisons, Punishment and Beyond and Justice for Victims and Offenders. He is joint editor of Mediation and Criminal Justice: Victims, Offenders and Community. A founder member of the Restorative Justice Consortium, he is currently a member of its board, and acts as a voluntary mediator in the Lambeth Mediation Service, London. As an active member of the European Forum for Restorative Justice he has spoken at many international conferences, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Conflict Resolution, Bulgaria. Restoring Respect for Justice has been translated into Russian and Polish.