Center for Restorative Practice

The purpose of the Center for Restorative Practice is to develop, implement and study collaborative and restorative processes for use by families, communities and organizations in the service of social justice.

Resource Link: http://www.restorativepractice.org

Community Conferencing as a Special Case of Conflict Transformation

John M. McDonald and David B. Moore. In Restorative Justice and Civil Society. Heather Strang and John Braithwaite, 130-148. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press., 2001.

McDonald and Moore seek to broaden the theory of transformative justice and conflict transformation. Specifically, they deal with community conferencing as the major reactive intervention based on a theory of conflict transformation in many settings: criminal justice, the workplace, education, and more. After summarizing the early theory on conferencing, with emphasis on the importance of the expression of shame in the process, the authors reexamine the notions of shame and guilt, particularly in relation to the sequence of a conference.

Resource Link: http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521805996

Indigenous Community Participation in the Sentencing of Criminal Offenders: Circle Sentencing

Luke McNamarra. Indigenous Law Bulletin, 5 (5), 4, 2000.

Since the release of a discussion paper regarding circle sentencing by the NSW Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee (AJAC), serious consideration is to be given to this practice, successfully started in Canada in 1992. "The objective of circle sentencing is to allow direct community involvement in the sentencing process, with a view to arriving at an appropriate sentence which reflects, where achieved, the consensus view of the circle."

Resource Link: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ILB/2000/29.html

International Institute for Restorative Practices

IIRP is the world's first graduate school wholly dedicated to restorative practices. Two IIRP programs, RealJustice and SaferSanerSchools, offer trainings in restorative justice. RealJustice offers trainings for bringing the restorative justice model to the police and legal systems in our communities, including how to facilitate restorative conferences. And SaferSanerSchools offers trainings on bringing the restorative justice model into schools, including how to facilitate restorative circles with young people.

Resource Link: http://www.restorativepractices.org

Justice As Healing: Indigenous Ways

Wanda D. McCaslin, editor. Living Justice Press.

Restorative justice traces its roots to Indigenous traditions worldwide, yet no book on restorative justice yet presents Indigenous voices speaking directly about Native ways of responding to harms and restoring harmony in relationships.? Justice As Healing does just that. This 450-page book provides writings on community peacemaking and restorative justice from the Native Law Centre of Canada at the University of Saskatchewan.

Resource Link: http://www.livingjusticepress.org

Mediate.com

Mediate.com is a comprehensive website which provides access to over 1000 conflict resolution-related articles and 5500 mediators, an excellent calendar of mediation events and trainings, and much more.

Resource Link: http://mediate.com

Mediators Without Borders

Mediators Without Borders brings together experienced mediators to collaborate and participate in mitigating violent conflict and organizing alternative approaches to expressing, acknowledging, and addressing political, economic, social, ethnic, and religious differences. By fostering collaborative initiatives in partnership with local efforts, Mediators Without Borders assists in building and sustaining local capacity in ways that encourage forgiveness and reconciliation and integrate peace with justice.

Resource Link: http://mediatorswithoutborders.org

National Association for Community Mediation

NAFCM is a membership organization comprised of community mediation centers, their staff and volunteer mediators, and other individuals and organizations interested in the community mediation movement.

Resource Link: http://www.nafcm.org

Peacemaking Circles: From Crime to Community

Kay Pranis, Barry Stuart and Mark Wedge, Peacebuilders International. Living Justice Press: St. Paul, Minnesota, 2003.

This book provides an overview of how peacemaking circles can be used with the justice system as a form of restorative justice. Includes numerous stories and guidelines to support the work that many pioneering community members and criminal justice professionals are doing around the world to explore a more healing, constructive response to crime.

Resource Link: http://www.peacebuildersinternational.com

Victim-Offender Mediation (VOM)

Victim Offender Mediation is a face-to-face meeting, in the presence of a trained mediator, between the victim of a crime and the person who committed that crime. The practice is also called victim-offender dialogue, victim-offender conferencing, victim-offender reconciliation, or restorative justice dialogue. In some practices, the victim and the offender are joined by family and community members or others.