Criminal Punishment and Restorative Justice: Past, Present and Future Perspectives

• NCJ Number: 214007
• Author(s): David J. Cornwell
• Date Published: 2006
• Length: 192 pages
• Sale Source: Waterside Press
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This book offers an overview of the debate concerning criminal punishment as it has developed over past centuries and into the current millennium and the role of the concept of restorative justice.

Abstract

This book is written to encourage students of criminology, practitioners within criminal justice systems, and even politicians to consider and challenge issues within criminology and criminal punishment philosophy which may have long been taken for granted. It challenges those to look beyond the traditional and give an appropriate place and consideration to the victims of crime within the justice system. The 12 chapters in this book are designed to provide a picture of the contemporary world of criminology and penology. This is accomplished by delivering a conclusion that criminology and criminal punishment do not deliver true justice. To improve justice, the restorative principles described within this book provide an excellent and appropriate model for potentially reshaping contemporary criminal justice. There is a need for all to question why so many people are imprisoned, and at such high social costs, especially, when it is so evident that prisons fail to reduce criminal offending. There is a need to challenge the assumption that the current systems of justice are just when these systems afford the victims of crime so little consideration. The new millennium may point in the direction of the concept of restorative justice. It reveals a number of possible advantages for a more effective administration of justice. Restorative justice makes offenders take responsibility for their own actions. Restorative justice enables the justice system to send less people to prison by allowing more offenders to repair the harm caused by their offenses and make reparation to the victims of crime while remaining within their communities. However, reconciliation through direct contact between individual offenders and their victims can be an area of contention and difficulty that must be recognized. References