Editorial for issue 24_02

Abstract

Contemporary Justice Review exists to provide an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal for scholars, activists, and practitioners of social and restorative justice around the globe who seek to share their theoretical, research-based, and applied work on the design and implementation of models of justice that take into account the needs of all. The journal’s articles have undoubtedly contributed to global discourse on the usefulness of restorative justice in disrupting trajectories into the criminal legal system and prison industrial complex, confronting racial, class, and immigration injustice, combatting gender-based violence and discrimination in all its forms, and transforming practices, policies and ideologies for a just world. In alignment with our interdisciplinary and global aims, the articles in this issue represent diverse perspectives and approaches to social, restorative and transformative justice from around the world. The timely and thought-provoking empirical research by Bello and Matshaba (South Africa) on university student perceptions of policing and their obedience and willingness to cooperate supports arguments that favor the adoption of just procedures that treat people fairly and with dignity and respect in place of reactionary policing. Similarly, Gawley, Cuellar, and Coyle (United States) explore the relationship between authoritarianism in schools and student behavior and suggest that preventive evidence-based therapeutic interventions, when used as viable alternatives to reactionary procedures, can result in enhanced school safety and promote positive student development. Asadullah and Morrison (Canada) draw attention to the roots and evolution of the restorative justice movement to refocus our lens on practices and initiatives that are community born, based, and led. Jokinen (Finland) addresses the moral conflict that divides critical feminist theory and restorative justice advocacy in cases of domestic violence. Bolaji’s (Ghana) phenomenological account of deep-rooted socio-political conflict in Dagbon provides a context for exploring the principle factors that position restorative justice as a central part of securing forgiveness, reconciliation and development in the region. Salm, Da Silva Neto, and Pamplona take us on a journey deep within the Brazilian Amazon to witness the rebirthing of culture, ecology, and the collective, which together create the conditions that inspire the use of restorative philosophy to resolve conflict. While weaving praxis and theory with eloquent prose, these authors reach out holding hands deeply soiled with fertile visions of a sustainable planet and join the call for us to live restoratively. May we echo the call. I ask you to join us by sharing your work and encouraging others across the globe to submit their manuscripts and book and film reviews to the Contemporary Justice Review. Please also see and share the call for papers on our upcoming Special Issue on Nonviolence. We want to hear from you. CONTEMPORARY JUSTICE REVIEW 2021, VOL. 24, NO. 2, 153–154 https://doi.org/10.1080/10282580.2021.1930972