Doing Justice Better: The Politics of Restorative Justice

Longer prison sentences, overcrowded and ineffective regimes, high rates of re-offending, and eclectic penal policies are all fueling a crisis while failing to reduce offending. Doing Justice Better argues that the symptoms of this penal malaise are grounded in media sensationalism of crime and the need of politicians and their advisers to retain electoral credibility. Change is long overdue, but it requires a fresh contemporary penology based on restorative justice. Doing Justice Better challenges the status quo, asking key questions and placing victims of crime at the center of the criminal justice process. It is an uncompromising appraisal of the unique penal crisis affecting Britain and other Western-style democracies.