Catholic Social Thought and Restorative Justice

by Alexander Mikulich, Ph.D., Adapted by Thomas Massaro, SJ | Oct 29, 2019 | The Weekly Word

Restorative Justice (RJ) is an alternative criminal justice practice that emphasizes repairing the harm of unjust behavior. As Howard Zehr, a leading founder of the RJ movement explains, RJ emerged in the mid-1970s to address three problems of how the traditional system: i) fails victims; ii) does not call offenders to account; and iii) does not address broader community needs.