Restorative justice and criminal justice : exploring the relationship

The traditional criminal justice system aims at both effective crime prevention and effective prevention of the abuse of public penal power. Restorative justice, as understood in the contemporary debate, signifies a process in which offenders, victims, their representatives and representatives of the community come together to agree on a response to a crime. Through the multitude of different restorative justice processes such as victim offender mediation, sentencing circles or restorative cautioning schemes perspectives of restorative justice often underline equal emphasis on victims, offenders and community, emphasis on relationships and a forward-looking approach. The authors are mainly researchers of law and philosophy at the University in Bergen, Norway.