From Margin to Centre in Restorative Justice Work

Facilitators play a vital role in restorative justice conferences, yet their work is often taken for granted. In a British evaluation of conferencing, Dignan et al (2007) have used Goffman's metaphor of conferencing as a ‘theatrical performance’ showing the value in undertaking a dramaturgical analysis of restorative justice. This article applies a similar approach using ethnographic techniques to analyse facilitation practice in an Australian conferencing scheme. In doing so, it analyses the ‘back stage’ and ‘front stage’ work in restorative justice to show how restorative justice rituals are assembled.

Restorative justice as popularly conceived is intertwined with ‘community’. Building trust within ‘communities’, restoring damaged social and interpersonal relations, widening the ways in which conflict and violence are understood and responded to are all elements of restorative justice. There are parallels here with the activities of community-development workers working in conflicted neighbourhood level communities. Might some of the practices within a typical restorative justice initiative be useful to community development? We highlight the potential benefits of dialogical processes and structured ‘healing’ relationships that are inherent in restorative justice work. We argue that some longstanding understandings within community development could usefully extend the ways in which restorative justice is typically enacted.