Responding to intercommunal conflict - what can restorative justice offer?

Abstract

Restorative justice as popularly conceived is intertwined with ‘community’. Building trust within ‘communities’, restoring damaged social and interpersonal relations, widening the ways in which conflict and violence are understood and responded to are all elements of restorative justice. There are parallels here with the activities of community-development workers working in conflicted neighbourhood level communities. Might some of the practices within a typical restorative justice initiative be useful to community development? We highlight the potential benefits of dialogical processes and structured ‘healing’ relationships that are inherent in restorative justice work. We argue that some longstanding understandings within community development could usefully extend the ways in which restorative justice is typically enacted.