History of Restorative Justice
General Histories, Origins, and Movement Overviews
Rewriting and Reclaiming History: The Emergence of Restorative Justice in Western Criminal Justice Systems
| Kelly Richards | Restorative Justice Exchange | June 4, 2015
This article critically reassesses the accepted origin stories of restorative justice and questions how the movement has narrated its own past.
Restorative Justice and Criminal Justice: Competing or Reconcilable Paradigms?
This collection examines whether restorative justice can coexist with conventional criminal justice, a central question in the movement’s history.
Exploring the History of the Restorative Justice Movement
| Kelly Richards | International Institute for Restorative Practices | No date
This paper analyzes the history of the restorative justice movement and critiques common origin stories about its emergence.
Restorative Justice: Repairing Harm and Transforming Communities
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This article summarizes restorative justice’s core historical themes: repairing harm, involving affected parties, and strengthening community relationships.
Indigenous, Religious, and Cultural Roots
Global History of Restorative Justice: A Comprehensive Study of Origins, Development and Cultural Evolution
| ResearchGate | ResearchGate | March 30, 2026
This paper surveys restorative justice as a global historical phenomenon, tracing its development from ancient and Indigenous conflict-resolution traditions to modern justice reforms.
Restorative Justice’s Indigenous Roots
| VPM | VPM News | April 19, 2024
This interview with Howard Zehr discusses the modern restorative justice movement, its Indigenous influences, and Zehr’s role in shaping the field since the 1970s.
Honoring the Global Indigenous Roots of Restorative Justice
| Center for the Study of Social Policy | CSSP | November 1, 2019
This article emphasizes the Indigenous and community-based traditions that shaped restorative justice before its modern institutional adoption.
A Report on the Relationship Between Restorative Justice and Indigenous Legal Traditions in Canada
| Koren Lightning-Earle | Department of Justice Canada | 2018
This report distinguishes restorative justice from Indigenous legal traditions while explaining their historical intersections in Canada.
Restorative Justice in Native Cultures
| Harley Eagle | Restorative Justice Exchange | June 4, 2015
This article discusses restorative justice from Dakota, Saulteaux, and Lakota perspectives and highlights Indigenous approaches to community accountability.
An “Anarchist” Genius to Restorative Justice?
| Brian Gumm | Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice | July 15, 2013
This essay explores Anabaptist and Mennonite influences on the early modern restorative justice movement.
God’s Justice: Punishment or Restoration?
| Howard Zehr | Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice | March 30, 2009
This article explores religious ideas about punishment and restoration that influenced parts of the restorative justice movement.
The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice
| Michael L. Hadley | SUNY Press | 2001
This collection examines religious and spiritual traditions that influenced restorative justice ideas about healing, accountability, and restoration.
Restorative Justice in Native Cultures and Peacemaking
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This entry highlights Indigenous peacemaking traditions as a major influence on restorative justice theory and practice.
Restorative Justice and Indigenous Roots
| UCSF Restorative Justice Practices | University of California, San Francisco | No date
This page summarizes the global Indigenous roots of restorative justice and emphasizes the influence of Indigenous peacemaking traditions.
Restorative Justice and Indigenous Legal Traditions
| Department of Justice Canada | Government of Canada | No date
This resource explains the relationship between restorative justice and Indigenous legal traditions, cautioning against treating them as identical.
Concept, Values and Origin of Restorative Justice
| United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime | Education for Justice | No date
This module introduces restorative justice concepts, values, and origins, connecting modern criminal justice reforms to older traditions of repairing harm.
Restorative Justice and Human Rights
| European Forum for Restorative Justice | EFRJ | No date
This resource links restorative justice to human rights frameworks and reflects the movement’s expansion beyond local mediation programs.
Circle Sentencing and Restorative Justice
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This entry describes circle sentencing, an important restorative practice influenced by Indigenous and community justice traditions.
Peacemaking Circles
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This article explains peacemaking circles as a restorative justice practice rooted in dialogue, community participation, and collective repair.
New Zealand, Canada, and International Models
Revisiting New Zealand’s “Gift to the World”
| W. R. Wood | Contemporary Justice Review | 2025
This article reexamines New Zealand family group conferencing, one of the most influential modern restorative justice models, and evaluates its global reputation and historical legacy.
Youth Justice in New Zealand: A Restorative Justice Framework
| S. J. O’Driscoll | UNAFEI | 2008
This paper explains New Zealand’s youth justice system and the central role of family group conferences in restorative justice history.
Family Group Conferences as a Case Study
| Allison Morris and Gabrielle Maxwell | U.S. Office of Justice Programs | 2003
This article explains how New Zealand family group conferences became a major restorative justice case study and influenced international youth justice reform.
Family Group Conferencing: Implications for Crime Victims
| Office for Victims of Crime | U.S. Department of Justice | 2002
This resource explains the origins of family group conferencing in New Zealand and its implications for victims in restorative justice practice.
Restorative Justice and Practices in New Zealand
| New Zealand Ministry of Justice | Government of New Zealand | No date
This government page reflects New Zealand’s central role in the modern history of restorative justice, especially through family group conferencing and court-connected practice.
Family Group Conferences
| Oranga Tamariki | Government of New Zealand | No date
This page explains family group conferences in New Zealand youth justice, one of the most important institutional models in restorative justice history.
Restorative Justice in Canada
| Department of Justice Canada | Government of Canada | No date
This government page explains Canada’s restorative justice approach and reflects the country’s long association with victim-offender mediation.
Questions After Almost 50 Years of Restorative Justice in Canada
| Judah Oudshoorn | European Forum for Restorative Justice | No date
This article reflects on nearly five decades of restorative justice in Canada, where the Kitchener victim-offender reconciliation case became a landmark origin story.
United Nations, Europe, and Formal Legal Recognition
Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)8 Concerning Restorative Justice in Criminal Matters
| Council of Europe | Council of Europe | October 3, 2018
This recommendation marks an important milestone in the formal recognition of restorative justice across European criminal justice systems.
An International Review of Restorative Justice
| David Miers | Restorative Justice Council | 2016
This international review surveys the development of restorative justice across multiple jurisdictions and provides historical context for global adoption.
Realising Restorative Justice: Human Rights and Personal Realities
| European Forum for Restorative Justice | EFRJ | 2016
This conference booklet connects restorative justice to human rights history, European policy, and global justice movements.
Developing Judicial Training for Restorative Justice
| T. Varfi and Coauthors | European Forum for Restorative Justice | 2016
This report explains how European legal systems incorporated restorative justice into judicial training after earlier mediation and victims’ rights reforms.
What Place for Punishment?
| Ivo Aertsen | European Forum for Restorative Justice | 2015
This essay places restorative justice in the history of criminal punishment and European legal development, asking how restorative justice relates to sanctions.
The Idea of Restorative Justice and How It Developed in Europe
| Ivo Aertsen | European Forum for Restorative Justice | 2014
This overview traces the development of restorative justice in Europe from early victim-offender mediation pilots to legal frameworks and national practices.
Restorative Justice in Criminal Matters
| Council of Europe | Council of Europe | No date
This page documents European policy work that helped institutionalize restorative justice in criminal matters.
European Forum for Restorative Justice
| European Forum for Restorative Justice | EFRJ | No date
This organizational page describes the European effort to institutionalize victim-offender mediation and other restorative justice practices.
Research in Restorative Justice
| European Forum for Restorative Justice | EFRJ | No date
This resource page gathers restorative justice research and shows the field’s growth from local experiments into international academic study.
Restorative Blog
| European Forum for Restorative Justice | EFRJ | No date
This blog collects reflections and field reports that trace restorative justice’s continuing development across Europe and beyond.
A Critical Moment for Restorative Justice in Spain
| European Forum for Restorative Justice | EFRJ | No date
This article discusses the development of restorative justice in Spain and the broader European move from obscurity to legal recognition.
Truth, Reconciliation, Transitional Justice, and Human Rights
Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: International Experience and Implications for Australia
| Parliament of Australia | Parliamentary Library | February 11, 2025
This research paper places truth and reconciliation commissions within a broader history of restorative justice, historical accountability, and reconciliation after state violence.
The Challenge of History: Justice, Coexistence and Reconciliation Work in Northern Ireland
| Mari Fitzduff | Restorative Justice Exchange | June 4, 2015
This article links restorative justice to Northern Ireland’s conflict history and the challenge of reconciliation after political violence.
Memory, the TRC and the Significance of Oral History in Post-Apartheid South Africa
| Sean Field | Restorative Justice Exchange | June 4, 2015
This article examines oral history, memory, and South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission as part of the global history of restorative justice.
Restorative Justice and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Process
| Christian B. N. Gade | South African Journal of Philosophy | 2013
This article evaluates claims that South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was rooted in restorative justice and ubuntu.
Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: Restorative Justice in International Context
| Jennifer J. Llewellyn | Dalhousie University | 2007
This chapter examines truth commissions as possible restorative justice institutions and links restorative justice to transitional justice history.
Transitional Justice, Restorative Justice and Reconciliation
| Rodrigo Uprimny and María Paula Saffon | Legal Tools Database | 2006
This paper asks whether restorative justice should be a dominant model for transitional justice and reconciliation after mass violence.
Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland
| Department of Justice Northern Ireland | Government of Northern Ireland | No date
This page documents restorative justice in Northern Ireland, where community-based justice developed in the context of conflict, policing, and reconciliation.
Restorative Justice and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
| Lisa McLeod | Beyond Intractability | No date
This article evaluates South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission through a restorative justice lens.
Restorative Justice and Transitional Justice
| International Center for Transitional Justice | ICTJ | No date
This organizational resource provides context for truth, reconciliation, reparations, and accountability processes that often overlap with restorative justice history.
United States Juvenile Justice, Victim-Offender Mediation, and Community Justice
Restorative Justice Conference as an Early Response to Young Offenders
| Edmund F. McGarrell | Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention | August 2001
This bulletin presents restorative conferencing as an early intervention for young offenders, reflecting the juvenile justice focus of early U.S. restorative programs.
A Comparison of Four Restorative Conferencing Models
This bulletin compares victim-offender mediation, community reparative boards, family group conferencing, and circle sentencing as modern restorative justice models.
The Need for Basic Principles
| Paul McCold | Restorative Justice Council | January 8, 2001
This article argues for basic principles in restorative justice as the movement expanded rapidly across countries and institutions.
Community Justice and a Vision of Collective Efficacy
| Gordon Bazemore | U.S. Office of Justice Programs | 2000
This chapter links restorative conferencing to community justice and citizen participation in juvenile crime responses.
National Survey of Victim-Offender Mediation Programs in the United States
| Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking | Office for Victims of Crime | 2000
This national survey documents the spread of victim-offender mediation programs across the United States at the turn of the century.
Guidelines for Victim-Sensitive Victim-Offender Mediation
| Office for Victims of Crime | U.S. Department of Justice | 2000
This guide explains the history and standards of victim-offender mediation, including its 1974 Canadian origins and 1978 U.S. replication.
Guidelines for Victim-Sensitive Victim-Offender Mediation: Case Studies
| Office for Victims of Crime | U.S. Department of Justice | 2000
This chapter includes the Elkhart Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program, an early U.S. replication of the Kitchener, Ontario model.
Guidelines for Victim-Sensitive Victim-Offender Mediation: History and Overview
| Office for Victims of Crime | U.S. Department of Justice | 2000
This chapter describes how victim-offender mediation gave practical form to the emerging concept of restorative justice.
Restoring the Balance: Juvenile and Community Justice
| Gordon Bazemore and Dennis Maloney | Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention | 1998
This report presents balanced and restorative justice as a reform framework for juvenile justice, emphasizing accountability, competency, and public safety.
Restorative Justice: International Perspectives
| Burt Galaway and Joe Hudson | Criminal Justice Press | 1996
This collection documents restorative justice as it emerged internationally through mediation, restitution, conferencing, and community justice practices.
Victim-Offender Mediation: An Analysis of Programs in Four States of the U.S.
| Mark S. Umbreit | U.S. Office of Justice Programs | 1994
This study evaluates early victim-offender mediation programs and shows how mediation helped shape restorative justice policy and practice.
Victim Offender Mediation
| Mark S. Umbreit | U.S. Office of Justice Programs | September 15, 1985
This early report describes victim-offender reconciliation programs after the 1974 Kitchener model and the 1978 Elkhart replication.
Balanced and Restorative Justice Project
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This resource documents the balanced and restorative justice framework that shaped U.S. juvenile justice reform in the 1990s.
Balanced and Restorative Justice for Juveniles
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This article places restorative justice inside juvenile justice reform and explains its emphasis on accountability, competency, and community protection.
Family Group Conferencing and Juvenile Justice
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This resource explains how family group conferencing became a restorative justice model for youth offending and community accountability.
Community Reparative Boards
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This resource documents community reparative boards, one of the four major restorative models used in U.S. juvenile justice reform.
Restorative Community Justice
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This entry links restorative justice to community justice, a reform current that emphasized local participation in responding to harm.
Schools, Youth, and Education
Restorative Justice in NYC Schools: An Evaluation
| National Institute of Justice | U.S. Department of Justice | March 1, 2022
This evaluation examines the use of restorative justice in New York City schools, documenting a major recent chapter in the movement from criminal justice into education.
Restorative Justice and School-Wide Transformation
| Anne Gregory and Coauthors | U.S. Office of Justice Programs | 2022
This study analyzes how restorative justice became a school reform strategy and identifies factors that shape implementation across school systems.
Student Suspensions Have Negative Consequences, According to NYC Study
| National Institute of Justice | U.S. Department of Justice | November 12, 2021
This article explains why restorative justice gained support in schools as evidence accumulated against suspension-heavy discipline policies.
Use of Restorative Justice and Restorative Practices at School
| E. Lodi and Coauthors | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | 2021
This review summarizes the growth of restorative practices in schools and places school-based restorative justice within the broader history of alternatives to exclusionary discipline.
Reducing Exclusionary Discipline and Ensuring School Safety
| JP Center | National Institute of Justice | 2020
This report studies school discipline alternatives, including restorative justice, in the context of the long backlash against zero-tolerance policies.
Restorative Practice: History, Successes, Challenges and Recommendations
| Valerie L. Marsh | University of Rochester | June 2017
This research brief gives a practical history of restorative practices in schools and explains how they emerged as an alternative to punitive discipline.
Restorative Justice in Education
| Learning for Justice | Southern Poverty Law Center | Spring 2014
This article explains restorative justice in schools and places it in the broader history of replacing zero-tolerance discipline with relationship-centered accountability.
Fidelity in Implementing School-Based Restorative Justice Conferences
| Akiva Liberman and Coauthors | U.S. Office of Justice Programs | 2012
This article addresses how school-based restorative justice programs were implemented and measured as the model expanded into education.
A History of Youth Justice in New Zealand
| Emily Watt | Restorative Justice Exchange | June 4, 2015
This article explains how New Zealand’s 1989 youth justice reforms institutionalized family group conferencing and influenced restorative justice worldwide.
Restorative Practices in Schools
| International Institute for Restorative Practices | IIRP | No date
This overview explains how restorative practices became a school discipline and community-building strategy.
Restorative Justice in Schools
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This entry explains how restorative justice moved from criminal justice settings into school discipline reform.
Restorative Justice: Pedagogy, Praxis and Discipline
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This article defines restorative justice in school discipline as a model emphasizing social engagement rather than social control.
Restorative Justice and Schools: Toolkit for Educators
| Edutopia | Edutopia | No date
This resource reflects the spread of restorative justice into education, where it became a response to punitive and exclusionary discipline.
Victims, Serious Harm, Sexual Violence, Domestic Violence, and Survivor-Centered Practice
Victim and Offender Ratings of Mediations and Restorative Conferences
| S. van Mastrigt | Victims & Offenders | 2025
This article compares participant experiences in mediation and restorative conferences, helping document how modern restorative justice practices have evolved in criminal justice systems.
Faced With a Violent Killing, a Family Chooses Forgiveness Over Prison
| The Guardian | The Guardian | June 26, 2023
This article reports on a North Carolina murder case handled through restorative justice, illustrating the modern expansion of restorative approaches into serious felony cases.
The Arc of History Bends Toward Justice
| Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice | Eastern Mennonite University | March 15, 2023
This event page frames restorative justice as an intergenerational movement and highlights the continuing evolution of restorative justice activism.
Survivor-Centered Transformative Justice
| Hawra Rabaan and Lynn Dombrowski | arXiv | March 1, 2023
This paper connects restorative and transformative justice traditions in work with domestic violence survivors, showing how survivor-centered justice grew from and challenged earlier restorative models.
Resolution 74: Restorative Justice and Survivors of Sexual Harm
| Restorative Justice Council | Resolution Magazine | Spring 2023
This issue includes reflections on building restorative justice services for survivors of sexual violence, showing how the field has expanded beyond its early criminal mediation roots.
The Interrelation of Victim-Offender Mediation and Criminal Policy
| A. Jauhiainen | Nordic Journal of Criminology | 2021
This article examines victim-offender mediation in the Nordic countries, showing how restorative justice developed alongside criminal policy reforms.
Short-Term Effects of Restorative Justice Conferences on Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms
| C. M. Angel and Coauthors | U.S. Office of Justice Programs | No date
This study shows the development of restorative justice research focused on victims’ trauma and healing after crime.
Restorative Justice and Work-Related Death Literature Review
| Debbie Brookes | Restorative Justice Council | 2009
This literature review shows how restorative justice expanded into workplace death, corporate accountability, and nontraditional harm contexts.
Restorative Justice: The Views of Victims and Offenders
| Joanna Shapland and Coauthors | Ministry of Justice | 2007
This evaluation reports participant views from major restorative justice schemes in England and Wales, documenting the field’s institutional growth.
Restorative Justice and Family Violence
| Heather Strang and John Braithwaite | Cambridge University Press | 2002
This book documents debates about applying restorative justice to family violence, showing how the field grappled with power, safety, and victim protection.
What Do Restorative Justice and Revenge Have in Common?
| Howard Zehr | Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice | June 11, 2009
This essay revisits themes from Changing Lenses and reflects on how restorative justice has understood retribution, revenge, and accountability.
Partial Justice?
| Howard Zehr | Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice | May 20, 2009
This essay argues that restorative justice must remain attentive to victims’ needs, a central concern of the movement since its early years.
Restorative Justice and Victims’ Rights
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This entry connects restorative justice to the victims’ rights movement, one of the important historical forces behind victim-offender mediation.
Victim-Offender Mediation and Dialogue
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This resource documents the mediation tradition at the heart of modern restorative justice.
Victim-Offender Mediation in the United States
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This article surveys U.S. victim-offender mediation programs and shows how they helped institutionalize restorative justice.
Restorative Justice and Serious Crime
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This resource documents debates over applying restorative justice to serious and violent offenses, one of the major frontiers in the field’s history.
Restorative Justice and Domestic Violence
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This entry reflects the long debate over whether restorative justice can be safely used in cases involving intimate partner violence and unequal power.
Restorative Justice and Sexual Violence
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This resource documents the cautious expansion of restorative justice into sexual violence cases and the development of survivor-centered safeguards.
Restorative Justice and Victim Healing
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This entry reflects the movement’s historical shift from offender rehabilitation toward victims’ questions, needs, and recovery.
Policing, Courts, Prisons, Probation, Reentry, and Corrections
Restorative Justice and the Judiciary
| Restorative Justice Council | Restorative Justice Council | 2015
This information pack explains how restorative justice entered courtroom practice in England and Wales after legislative changes allowing pre-sentence restorative processes.
Restorative Justice and Policing
| Restorative Justice Council | Restorative Justice Council | 2013
This information pack documents the role of police pilots and youth cautions in the spread of restorative justice in Britain.
Restorative Justice, Self-Interest and Responsible Citizenship
| Lode Walgrave | Willan/Routledge | 2008
This book connects restorative justice to citizenship, responsibility, and civic participation, extending the field’s historical and theoretical foundations.
Restorative Justice in Prisons
| Ivo Aertsen, Tom Daems and Luc Robert | Willan/Routledge | 2006
This book examines how restorative justice entered prison settings, expanding beyond diversion and community-based mediation.
Restorative Justice and the Law
| Lode Walgrave | Willan/Routledge | 2002
This book explores how restorative justice moved from community practice into legal institutions and formal criminal justice systems.
Sentencing and Corrections: Restorative Justice
| Leena Kurki | National Institute of Justice | 1999
This article explains the rise of restorative justice programs, especially victim-offender mediation, and notes their spread through Europe and the United States.
Restorative Justice and Probation
| Office for Victims of Crime | U.S. Department of Justice | No date
This chapter discusses victim-offender programs in probation and parole contexts, showing how restorative justice entered correctional supervision.
Restorative Justice and Reentry
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This entry shows how restorative justice ideas expanded into prisoner reentry, reintegration, and community repair.
Research, Evidence, Theory, and Key Books
Non-Verbal Communication Analysis in Victim-Offender Mediations
| Víctor Ponce-López and Coauthors | arXiv | December 7, 2014
This paper shows how victim-offender mediation had become established enough for researchers to study communication patterns inside restorative justice sessions.
Agreements in Restorative Justice Conferences
| Hennessey Hayes and Coauthors | U.S. Office of Justice Programs | January 2014
This article examines conference agreements and post-conference behavior, documenting the maturation of restorative conferencing research.
Restorative Justice Conferencing for Reducing Recidivism in Young Offenders
This review studies restorative justice conferencing for young offenders and shows how youth justice remained central to restorative justice research.
Social Work and Restorative Justice
This article connects restorative justice to social work history and describes early U.S. victim-offender reconciliation work in Elkhart, Indiana.
Restorative Justice Dialogue: An Essential Guide for Research and Practice
| Mark S. Umbreit and Marilyn Peterson Armour | Restorative Justice Exchange | October 6, 2010
This resource explains restorative justice dialogue as a practice shaped by decades of victim-offender mediation and conferencing experience.
Restorative Justice Cases in Scotland
| Steve Kirkwood | Restorative Justice Council | 2009
This article studies restorative justice cases in Scotland and contributes to the history of restorative justice practice in the United Kingdom.
Restorative Justice: The Evidence
| Lawrence Sherman and Heather Strang | Smith Institute | 2007
This influential report reviews the evidence for restorative justice and describes varieties of restorative practices found in modern and historical settings.
The Handbook of Restorative Justice
| Gerry Johnstone and Daniel W. Van Ness | Routledge | 2007
This handbook collects major scholarship on restorative justice history, theory, practice, and international development.
Critical Issues in Restorative Justice
| Howard Zehr and Barb Toews | Criminal Justice Press | 2004
This collection addresses major debates that emerged as restorative justice moved from experimental programs into mainstream reform discussions.
Restorative Justice in Context
| Elmar G. M. Weitekamp and Hans-Jürgen Kerner | Willan/Routledge | 2003
This collection places restorative justice in historical, cultural, and comparative context across different countries and traditions.
Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation
| John Braithwaite | Oxford University Press | 2002
This book connects restorative justice to regulatory theory and shows how restorative ideas expanded beyond conventional criminal justice.
Restorative Justice: Ideas, Values, Debates
| Gerry Johnstone | Willan/Routledge | 2002
This book surveys the ideas and debates that shaped restorative justice as it became a recognized field of criminal justice theory.
The Little Book of Restorative Justice
| Howard Zehr | Good Books | 2002
This short book became one of the most widely used introductions to restorative justice principles and helped spread the movement beyond specialists.
Restorative Justice and Civil Society
| Heather Strang and John Braithwaite | Cambridge University Press | 2001
This collection examines restorative justice as a civil society movement and places it in broader social and political history.
Restorative Justice: Philosophy to Practice
| Heather Strang and John Braithwaite | Routledge | 2000
This collection traces restorative justice from theory to practical programs, reflecting its transition from movement idea to justice policy.
Restorative Justice for Juveniles
| Elmar G. M. Weitekamp and Hans-Jürgen Kerner | Criminal Justice Press | 1999
This book documents the special importance of juvenile justice in the rise and spread of restorative justice.
Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice
| Howard Zehr | Herald Press | 1990
This landmark book helped popularize restorative justice by contrasting retributive justice with a victim-centered, repair-oriented approach.
Crime, Shame and Reintegration
| John Braithwaite | Cambridge University Press | 1989
This book introduced reintegrative shaming theory, a major influence on restorative justice conferencing and later restorative justice scholarship.
The Importance of Perceptions in Restorative Justice Conferences
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This article studies procedural justice and reintegrative shaming in restorative conferences, connecting modern research to John Braithwaite’s theory.
Digital, Online, and Technology-Enabled Restorative Justice
The Design Space for Online Restorative Justice Tools: A Case Study with ApoloBot
| Bich Ngoc Doan and Joseph Seering | arXiv | February 26, 2025
This study shows how restorative justice principles are being adapted to online communities, extending the movement’s history into digital conflict resolution.
Addressing Interpersonal Harm in Online Gaming Communities
| Sijia Xiao, Shagun Jhaver and Niloufar Salehi | arXiv | November 2, 2022
This article applies restorative justice concepts to online gaming communities, showing how restorative practices migrated from courts and schools into digital governance.
Organizations, Handbooks, Archives, and General Resources
Handbook on Restorative Justice Programmes
| United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime | United Nations | 2020
This handbook summarizes the development, principles, safeguards, and implementation of restorative justice programs around the world.
Handbook of Restorative Justice Programmes, First Edition
| United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime | United Nations | 2006
This earlier UN handbook shows how restorative justice had become a recognized international criminal justice reform by the early 2000s.
Basic Principles on the Use of Restorative Justice Programmes in Criminal Matters
| United Nations | United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime | 2002
This United Nations document reflects the international institutionalization of restorative justice after decades of local and national experimentation.
Restorative Justice Online Notebook
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This resource reflects the creation of online collections to preserve and spread restorative justice research, models, and history.
What Is Restorative Justice?
| Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice | Eastern Mennonite University | No date
This overview explains restorative justice as a movement that emerged in the 1970s to address victims’ needs, accountability, and community repair.
Introduction to Restorative Justice
| Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice | Eastern Mennonite University | No date
This introduction explains how the term restorative justice was popularized by Howard Zehr and became a framework for a justice paradigm shift.
Howard Zehr CV
| Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice | Eastern Mennonite University | No date
This profile documents Howard Zehr’s role as an early practitioner and theorist of restorative justice beginning in the late 1970s.
The International Journal of Restorative Justice
| European Forum for Restorative Justice | EFRJ | No date
This journal page documents restorative justice as a mature field of international scholarship, policy debate, and practice development.
RJE Archive
| Restorative Justice Exchange | Prison Fellowship International | No date
This archive collects historical, theoretical, and practical writings on restorative justice from across the modern movement.
Restorative Justice Handbook
| Restorative Justice Exchange | Prison Fellowship International | No date
This handbook summarizes restorative justice principles and practices, offering a practical entry point into the movement’s historical ideas.
Three Core Elements of Restorative Justice
| Restorative Justice Exchange | Prison Fellowship International | No date
This page explains encounter, repair, and transformation as central elements that emerged from the modern restorative justice movement.
Restorative Practices: History, Theory and Practice
| International Institute for Restorative Practices | IIRP | No date
This page defines restorative practices and situates them within the broader restorative justice tradition.
The Minnesota Restitution Center and Restorative Justice Programming
| Joe Hudson | Federal Probation | No date
This article argues that the Minnesota Restitution Center should be included in the contemporary origins of restorative justice programming.
Restorative Justice Council: What Is Restorative Justice?
| Restorative Justice Council | Restorative Justice Council | No date
This overview explains restorative justice in the United Kingdom and reflects the institutionalization of the movement through national standards and service providers.
RJC Service Providers Handbook
| Restorative Justice Council | Restorative Justice Council | No date
This handbook shows how restorative justice practice became professionalized through standards, service models, and quality assurance.
Restorative Justice and Community Accountability
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This resource documents the movement’s emphasis on community responsibility, not just state punishment, in responding to harm.
Restorative Justice and Accountability
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This article explains how restorative justice redefined accountability as repairing harm rather than merely accepting punishment.
Restorative Justice and Community Service
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This resource places community service in restorative justice history when service is tied to meaningful repair rather than simple punishment.
Restorative Justice and Reparations
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This entry connects restorative justice to restitution, reparation, and compensation, older concepts that helped shape the modern movement.
Restorative Justice in Practice
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This entry describes practical restorative justice models that grew from victim-offender mediation and community conferencing.
Restorative Justice: A Vision for Healing and Change
| U.S. Office of Justice Programs | NCJRS Virtual Library | No date
This resource reflects the early movement’s language of healing, accountability, and community participation as alternatives to punishment-centered justice.
Restorative Justice in a Restorative Society
| Restorative Justice Council | Restorative Justice Council | No date
This organization’s materials reflect the idea of a restorative society, showing how restorative justice grew from criminal justice programs into a broader social vision.
