Violence and Restorative Justice

Abstract

Existing criminal justice and sentencing policies do not serve survivors of violence well, particularly those who are of color and from disadvantaged communities. Policies that allow for the imposition of long and life sentences are often said to reflect victims’ preferences, but this is misleading. Long prison sentences also consume significant public dollars that could be reallocated to improve victim services and enhance crime prevention efforts. Increased investment in restorative justice alternatives would also provide a more effective, humane, and racially equitable way of responding to the problem of violence. While important questions about scalability remain unresolved, developing the institutional capacity to operate restorative justice-inspired interventions that target violence and survivors of color is an important component of the effort to ameliorate the harm associated with both violence and mass incarceration.