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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: November 12, 2002
Latest Update: November 12, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

What's Happening in Restorative Justice?
Alternatives to Killing and Imprisonment

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, November 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

We're leaving for Chicago this afternoon, and I can't do much in the way of practice modules. But this is important stuff that we'll need for our discussions in the next few weeks and next semester. Compare the comment question on Coping with Acknowledgment: What Do I Do When I Love Him Anyway? This is one of those situations in which restorative justice, if we had it well enough set up in our friendship groups and our communities might serve justice far more effectively that punishment. When abuse is ignored, it can and often does worsen. But if the abuser could say to himself/herself "I've been heard." might that not help far more than punishment?

On Tuesday, November 12, we received the following e-mail from the Restorative Practices eForum:

NEW RESEARCH DEMONSTRATES EFFECTIVENESS OF
"RESTORATIVE PRACTICES" IN PROGRAMS FORbr> DELINQUENT AND AT-RISK YOUTH

by Paul McCold, Ph.D., Director of Research
International Institute for Restorative Practices

The Community Service Foundation (CSF) and Buxmont Academy operate six school/day treatment programs in southeastern Pennsylvania for adjudicated delinquent and at-risk youth. The CSF Buxmont schools utilize "restorative practices" based on the premise that human beings are happier, more productive, and more likely to make positive changes in their behavior when those in positions of authority do things WITH them, rather than TO them or FOR them. CSF Buxmont creates an environment or "restorative milieu" in which the youth actively problem-solve and take responsibility, not only for their own behavior, but for the well-being of the whole school community. This new research presents the outcome measures for the 919 youth discharged between June 1, 1999 and August 30, 2001. The CSF Buxmont schools produced positive results in youth in three performance measures: offending rates following discharge, program completion rates, and youth attitudes.

These results provide very strong empirical support that restorative practices are effective and that youth in a restorative milieu will become more positive in their social values, develop an improved self-image, and will be less likely to offend in the future.

View these results in a simple and clearly illustrated "research-in- brief" on the IIRP website at: http://www.restorativepractices.org/Pages/ermbrief.html or download as a PDF at: http://fp.enter.net/restorativepractices/ermbrief.pdf

Also, a two-page executive summary of the technical report can be viewed on the IIRP website at: http://www.restorativepractices.org/Pages/ermexecsum.html or download as a PDF at: http://fp.enter.net/restorativepractices/ermexecsum.pdf

Finally, the full technical report can be viewed on the IIRP website at: http://www.restorativepractices.org/Pages/erm.html or download as a PDF at: http://fp.enter.net/restorativepractices/erm.pdf

More on this, when we return. Irma, I think you might want to compare it to the three strikes law.