The emerging field of "restorative practices" offers a common thread to tie together theory, research and practice in seemingly disparate fields, such as education, counseling, criminal justice, social work and organizational management.

Restorative practices provides a general framework for a broad range of approaches that give those most affected by conflict the tools and principles needed to resolve problems and build relationships.

The underlying premise of restorative practices is that people are happier, more cooperative, more productive and more likely to make positive changes when those in authority do things with them rather than to them or for them. This premise is part of a unifying conceptual framework that helps to explain human motivation and social behavior, from families and classrooms to workplaces and communities.

Restorative justice and parallel developments

Many who find their way to this web site will have heard the term “restorative justice,” a worldwide movement that offers a new way of looking at criminal justice by focusing on repairing the harm done to people and relationships rather than on punishing offenders. Originating in the 1970s as mediation between victims and offenders, in the 1990s restorative justice broadened to include communities of care as well, with victims’ and offenders’ families and friends participating in collaborative processes called “conferences” and “circles.”

There have been a number of parallel developments in other fields:

• Primary school educators have used talking circles and morning meetings to improve classroom climate
• Secondary educators have adapted restorative justice to address discipline problems
• Social workers have organized family group decision making (FGDM) conferences to bring together extended families to solve problems of abuse and delinquency involving their own loved ones
• Business managers have used horizontal management strategies to empower their employees to solve problems in the workplace.

Restorative practices integrates these diverse but fundamentally similar developments under one umbrella. Restorative justice may be thought of as a subset of restorative practices.

What Is Real Justice?

Founded in 1995, Real Justice was a predecessor to the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP). Now a program of the IIRP, Real Justice promotes and provides training in restorative practices, including restorative conferencing. Structured meetings between offenders, victims and both parties' family and friends, restorative conferences deal with the consequences of a crime and decide how best to repair the harm the crime has engendered. Conferences provide victims and others an opportunity to confront an offender, express their feelings, ask questions and have a say in what happens next. Conferencing holds offenders accountable while providing them an opportunity to discard the "offender" label and be reintegrated into their community, school or workplace. Conference facilitators employ a simple script to keep a conference on focus.

Positive results

Research has shown that restorative conferencing provides positive results, especially in contrast with conventional justice processes, in terms of participant satisfaction, cost savings and in reducing offender recidivism.

Learn more

• Explore the IIRP’s extensive online collection of articles
• Join the Restorative Practices eForum
• Purchase books and videos
• Register for an Introduction to Restorative Practices training
• Register for a Facilitating Restorative Conferences training
  
• Take a graduate course in restorative practices