AustLit

''Restorative justice' is often used as an umbrella term for a range of processes - including victim-offender mediation, youth justice conferencing and circle sentencing - through which legal reformers have sought to move away from a retributive model of justice, to encourage offenders to take more responsibility for their actions, to offer victims a voice that is often lacking in courtroom proceedings, and to promote reintegration of offenders into a community of care. With a view to offering a sympathetic critique of restorative justice theory, we read David Williamson's trilogy of 'docudramas' ('Face to Face, A Conversation' and 'Charitable Intent') against the observations of fieldwork carried out in the New South Wales juvenile justice system. This comparative analysis shows how Williamson's representation of restorative justice aligns better with the sort of ideal-typical descriptions of practice that restorative justice practitioners offer in their training manuals than it does with actual practice.' 

 (Publication abstract)