Since the 1970s, the United States has witnessed a great expansion of community-based restorative justice programs. These programs serve as alternatives to the traditional court and probation system. Unlike the traditional justice system, restorative justice focuses on repairing harm done by an offense and works toward restoring the offenders to good standing in the community. While there is a significant amount of research which has examined the effectiveness of community-based programs, relatively little research has focused on the community volunteers who participate in these programs. I conducted an ethnographic study (observations and interviews) of community volunteers participating in a juvenile diversion program called. My research shows that NAB members encourage offending youths to make better choices in the future. They explain to the teens that with every choice one makes comes a reward or punishment. Specifically, NAB members encourage youths to obey the law, work hard, and have a good attitude. Yet my findings also indicate that NAB members are aware of environmental factors, such as family and schools, which may limit the choices actually available to youths and influence their decision making. Ultimately, these findings represent a contradiction in which NAB members encourage youths to subscribe to middle-class values despite the fact that there may be structural obstacles which impede youths from doing so.

Aboriginal peoples are over-represented in many adverse demographics. Most striking is their presence in the justice system. Aboriginal offenders experience the highest levels of incarceration, and later recidivism. Sentencing circles are an indigenized alternate approach to sentencing that aim to improve their justice experience. Most studies conducted on the efficacy of circle sentencing have focused on its capacity to reduce crime. The findings of such research conclude that circle sentencing is ineffective at achieving such outcomes. I propose that these are the wrong outcomes to analyze and in turn seek to research new evaluative criteria for assessing circle sentencing’s effectiveness, by focusing on its restorative capacity instead of its reductive ability alone. The legitimacy of these measures is examined by interviewing individuals from different levels of restoration and comparing findings to existing scholarship. Semi-structured interviews are used to investigate the efficacy of Mi’kmaq circle sentencing in Millbrook, Nova Scotia.

My thesis examines how the contemporary restorative justice movement frames itself in educational, informational and training films, in an attempt to broaden its appeal and advance its acceptance and implementation, particularly within a culture of crime control where retribution and punishment are hegemonic. I examine contemporary restorative justice, first through an acknowledgement of its varied and diverse roots as well as through its entrenchment within the dominantly punitive criminal justice system. Contemporary restorative justice is often referred to as a social movement, and as such it maintains a capacity to reshape the current discursive terrain and transform criminal justice culture. Snow and Benford (1986, 1988) assert that social movements disrupt hegemonic discourses and practices through frame alignment tasks (diagnostic, prognostic and motivational framing) and frame alignment processes (bridging, amplification, extension and transformation). I examine how the contemporary restorative justice movement utilizes these tasks and processes in information, educational and training films, in its effort to advance an alternative perspective of criminal justice.

Neither currently prevalent justifications of punishment, nor a modified, contractarian version of a justification that I develop here, can be used to justify actual state punishment, even if some forms of punishment may remain legitimate. I argue in this thesis that alternative punitive practices such as developed by some Canadian aboriginal communities are more likely to conform to the criteria of punitive justice developed by standard justifications, as well as being more likely to conform to criteria developed in feminist ethics.

This thesis presents original empirical research concerning a restorative justice practice currently operating within England. Specifically, it examines the expectations and experiences of victims participating in a restorative practice. It establishes the extent to which victims‘ expectations may impact upon their experiences of the restorative justice process. Throughout this research, original empirical data is presented which demonstrates that victims possess a limited understanding of restorative principles and practices, which persists despite preparatory meetings. This research suggests victims place almost exclusive reliance upon gatekeepers of the process, specifically the police or restorative facilitator, in both the formation of their expectations of the process and in their decisions to participate. This thesis argues that the existence of restorative practices as complex interactionary processes enables victims to experience aspects of the process negatively, whilst continuing to view the process as beneficial. It is submitted that negative experiences can arise from an expectation-reality gap, which the preparatory meetings fail to rectify. Throughout the restorative process, this research demonstrates that victims continue to possess a punitive perspective and continue to rely upon aspects of the traditional criminal justice system and courtroom imagery. Such reliance exists in contradiction to central themes of restorative justice theory, including victim rejection of an empowered decision making role during the process, and the irrelevance of offender remorse.

My thesis examines how the contemporary restorative justice movement frames itself in educational, informational and training films, in an attempt to broaden its appeal and advance its acceptance and implementation, particularly within a culture of crime control where retribution and punishment are hegemonic. I examine contemporary restorative justice, first through an acknowledgement of its varied and diverse roots as well as through its entrenchment within the dominantly punitive criminal justice system. Contemporary restorative justice is often referred to as a social movement, and as such it maintains a capacity to reshape the current discursive terrain and transform criminal justice culture. Snow and Benford (1986, 1988) assert that social movements disrupt hegemonic discourses and practices through frame alignment tasks (diagnostic, prognostic and motivational framing) and frame alignment processes (bridging, amplification, extension and transformation). I examine how the contemporary restorative justice movement utilizes these tasks and processes in information, educational and training films, in its effort to advance an alternative perspective of criminal justice.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-125). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-63). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-02-04Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:29:11Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 santana_cs_me_prud.pdf: 2269854 bytes, checksum: 80bba51c6381db4eef453d28945e1438 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O presente estudo foi construído no âmbito da Linha de Pesquisa Políticas Públicas, Organização Escolar e Formação de Professores e teve por objetivo investigar os reflexos do modelo de resolução de conflitos denominado Justiça Restaurativa sobre a prevenção da violência, a indisciplina grave e a promoção da cultura de paz numa escola da rede pública da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo. As práticas restaurativas são muito antigas como forma de resolução dialogada e pacífica de conflitos, com origem nos modelos de organização social das sociedades comunais pré-estatais européias e nas coletividades nativas, mas acabaram neutralizadas pelos esforços de colonização. A violência em meio escolar é um fenômeno que ganhou o debate público a partir da década de 1980, contemporaneamente ao processo de redemocratização do país. A escola não é impermeável aos fenômenos sociais, de forma que a violência e a indisciplina, quaisquer que sejam suas causas, atingem os atores envolvidos no processo educativo e a qualidade do ambiente de aprendizagem nesse espaço privilegiado de socialização secundária, também responsável pela formação da pessoa em desenvolvimento, seu preparo para o trabalho, o exercício da cidadania e do respeito mútuo. A violência em meio escolar reclama forma eficaz de enfrentamento, para além de experiências individuais e fragmentadas, mas como objeto de princípios e diretrizes traçadas em políticas públicas. A pesquisa situa tangencialmente a violência no cenário mundial e nacional, aborda seus efeitos na sociedade e em meio escolar, e analisa a experiência da utilização da chamada Justiça Restaurativa como esforço alternativo ou complementar de resolução conflitos em determinada escola da rede pública da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo... / The present study was constructed in the Research Line Public Policy, School Organization and Teacher Education and aimed to investigate the consequences of the model of conflict resolution called Restorative Justice on the prevention of violence, serious indiscipline and promotion of the culture of peace in a public school in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. Restorative practices are very old as a negotiated and peaceful resolution of conflicts, originated in the models of social organization of pre-state European communal societies and of native communities, but were eventually neutralized by the efforts of colonization. Violence in schools is a phenomenon that has won the public debate since the 1980s, along with the process of democratization of the country. The school is not impervious to social phenomena, so that violence and indiscipline, whatever its causes, affects those involved in the educational process and the quality of the learning environment in this special area of secondary socialization, also responsible for the person development, that must prepare them for work, citizenship and mutual respect. Violence in schools calls for effective coping, beyond individual and fragmented experiences, but as an object of principles and guidelines set forth in public policy. The research approaches tangentially violence in national and world stage, deals with its effects on society and in schools, and examines the experience of using restorative justice as an alternative or complementary effort on resolution of conflicts in a certain public school in the Metropolitan Region São Paulo ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Statistics show that suspension and expulsion rates are very high in K-12 education in the United States, and a range of studies indicate that these disciplinary strategies have long-term negative impacts on the success of students. This study evaluated perceptions of retributive and restorative approaches to discipline in schools through a two (restorative process versus retributive process) by two (restorative outcome versus retributive outcome) design. Two hundred and forty-one participants were recruited online and in person for this study. They each read a vignette that presented one of the four versions of a disciplinary procedure. Then each participant indicated their agreement with a series of statements addressing perceptions of fairness of the disciplinary action; the student’s sense of being cared for by the administrator; the emotional response of the participant to the vignette; and estimates of the likelihood of recidivism. Results demonstrated that participants perceived more restorative process and outcomes or consequences to be fairer than retributive outcomes, and perceived restorative outcomes to be associated with an increase in a student’s sense of being cared for by the disciplinarian. These results align with other research suggesting that retributive discipline is often perceived as unfair and that students come to feel that the school does not care about them. This study supports a need for more research on the impacts of restorative justice approaches, particularly regarding the assignment of outcomes or consequences.