Healing Victims and Offenders and Reducing Crime: A Critical Assessment of Restorative Justice Practice and Theory

The current article explores the growing restorative justice movement. It examines promising research indicating that face-to-face dialogue with crime victims and offenders may work to restore and heal participants, and reduce recidivism. In addition, the article assesses the current state of restorative justice theory, suggesting new avenues for future theory and research. I show how current thinking about restorative justice can benefit from a micro-sociological reframing, focusing on the production of collective emotion and micro-dynamics of interaction.