‘Restorative justice’ is a process meant to involve those who have a stake in a specific offense and to collectively identify and address harms, needs and obligations in order to heal at the individual, family and community levels. As Braithwaite (2020) points out, restorative justice sees crime as an imbalance of social relationships and harms done to the victim, family and community.

A restorative approach fundamentally differs from a traditional criminal justice approach because achieving justice is about making amends, restoring the relationships and addressing the offender’s accountability and the victim’s reparations of harms. Such an approach also includes problem-solving policing or ‘restorative policing’, including crisis intervention teams, on-scene victim assistance units for domestic violence calls, or police-facilitated family group conferencing for juveniles.

The concept of ‘therapeutic jurisprudence’ originates from the function of mental health law, focusing on the therapeutic impact of legal rules and procedures, as well as the psychological competency and wellbeing of offenders involved in the court process. Therapeutic jurisprudence focuses on the reintegration of the offender into society by addressing rehabilitation through cognitive-behavioural intervention.

Origins and evolution of restorative justice and therapeutic jurisprudence

Restorative justice reflects ancient and Indigenous practices employed in cultures around the globe. For example, ‘talking circles’ – originating from Indigenous tradition – are a core component of the restorative process, using a structural framework to build relationships and to address conflict within a community. In the modern context, restorative justice emerged in the 1970s as mediation or reconciliation between victims and offenders. The positive response by the victims led to the first victim– offender reconciliation programme in Ontario, Canada.

The concept subsequently acquired various names, such as victim– offender mediation, as it spread through North America and Europe in the 1980s and 1990s. ‘Family group conferencing’ started in New Zealand in 1989, to respond to Māori people’s concerns with the number of their children being removed from their homes by the courts. In Australia, a community-based group – the Aboriginal Youth Night Patrol – supports the welfare of young people by providing safety for those at risk of danger or anti-social behaviour.