Vol. 14 No. 3 (March 2004)

FACING VIOLENCE: THE PATH OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE AND DIALOGUE, by Mark S. Umbreit, Betty Vos, Robert Coates, and Katherine Brown. Monsey, New York: Criminal Justice Press, 2003. 395pp. Paper $35.00. ISBN: 1-881798-45-3.

Reviewed by Darren A. Wheeler, Department of Political Science, Northwest College. Email: wheelerd@northwestcollege.edu

Those in the criminal justice system are good at crunching numbers. We hire more police. We build more prisons. We measure success by the number of persons arrested, how many convictions are obtained, how many are incarcerated, and how many successfully complete their parole. The restorative justice process offers something less tangible. How does one measure healing? It is a difficult question, but one that this book tackles in a well-researched, clear manner to the credit of the authors.

An emerging concept in the field of criminal justice over the past few decades, restorative justice is centered on the belief that the harms caused by criminal acts can best be addressed by those involved-namely the offender and the victim. The aim of a restorative justice process is to "right the wrongs." This is commonly done through mediated processes involving the offender and those harmed by the crimes in question. As a result, the process seeks to heal the victim, reintegrate the offender, and restore the community. Restorative justice approaches have increasingly been used in cases involving property crimes and misdemeanors. FACING VIOLENCE reflects the authors' belief that the restorative justice process can also be applied to violent crimes. This text examines two such programs in Texas and Ohio in an effort to gauge the appropriateness and success of such programs.

Dr. Mark Umbreit is the Executive Director for the Center of Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota, where he works with Senior Research Associates Dr. Betty Vos and Dr. Robert Coates. Dr. Katherine Brown is the Mental Health Administrator at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. All of the authors have written and researched extensively in this field.

The book is divided into three sections. Chapters One and Two provide background in the techniques and development of the restorative justice field. The second section, Chapters Three through Ten, chronicles the Texas and Ohio case studies. Chapters Eleven through Thirteen comprise the final section that summarizes the findings and contains the authors' policy recommendations.

For those new to the field of restorative justice, the opening two chapters provide a clear, concise summary of the state of the research in the field. This gives the reader a feel for the impetus behind developments in the restorative justice movement and outlines scholarly efforts to both document and test the boundaries in this area of criminal justice research.

The second section is the heart of the book. These chapters review the Texas and Ohio programs that have specifically been designed to use the restorative justice process with victims and offenders of violent offenses. The chapters cover issues surrounding the formation of these programs, how they are staffed and trained, and how they handle cases from start to finish. In-depth interviews with victims, staff, and offenders provide a detailed analysis of what makes these programs tick. The chapters are methodically laid out in a logical, easy-to-follow format. At times however, this section makes for some dry reading as the chapters resemble a program review (which they essentially are) crammed with numbers, percentages, and lists of responses, rather than a more flowing narrative style.

Having said this, the authors are to be commended for the emphasis they place on being rigorous in their studies. Facing the problems common to all researchers of "small n," qualitative studies, they recognize the limitations of this particular study and its place in the field. It is also fair to note that the sample size of 40 victims and 39 offenders examined in this book is the largest to date in this particular research area. The case studies are of such depth that one almost feels like one knows the individuals involved after reading them.

Section three provides an opportunity for the authors to summarize their findings and explore the theoretical and practical applications for their work. The authors report similar findings across the two programs. The findings are not only consistent though, they are almost universally (some might say remarkably) positive when it comes to the opinions that victims, offenders, and staff have after using the restorative justice process in this area. This is perhaps the strongest support that the authors present for continuing the development of restorative justice programs and engaging in further examination of how programs can be made more effective.

The authors also provide us with a preliminary typology with which they seek to classify the different types of programs and approaches that can be used to apply the restorative justice process to victims and offenders of violent crimes. There is some danger in devising a typology with three categories when one's universe of cases (the Texas program, the Ohio program, and the authors' Humanistic Approach described in Appendix B) also numbers three. The value of the typology probably lies in the fact that it is a useful tool to examine and recognize the similarities and differences that can be present in parallel programs. It can also serve as a springboard for further research in this area and "help clarify purpose and practice as well as draw out implications regarding resources needed" (p.334).

The authors conclude with a handful of policy and practice recommendations. It does not come as a surprise that they would encourage departments of corrections to develop procedures and guidelines for allowing victim-initiated mediation processes and to enhance their development and implementation. Practice recommendations include a caution that the entire mediation process be both victim-initiated and voluntary for all parties. Mediators should be well-trained and all parties adequately prepared throughout the process that, while following a well-defined framework, should retain flexibility as needed on a case-by-case basis.

I would recommend this book to a variety of audiences. Those considering or in the process of developing some type of restorative justice program will undoubtedly find this research to be useful and instructive. The analysis focuses on the development and implementation of the Texas and Ohio programs from start to finish, addressing a range of questions related to program design. Criminal justice system officials, as well as public officials who make policy decisions in this area, could find something of interest in this book as the applications it examines have potentially far-reaching implications for criminal justice public policy.

Scholars in this area will also find these studies to be quite informative. Instead of assuming that victims of violent crimes would not want to open a dialogue with offenders, this book examines the question, testing and expanding the boundaries and applicability of victim-mediated programs. Some instructors teaching classes in corrections or judicial politics might also find the book to be a useful supplementary text. While the book is clearly written and easy to read, it is likely to be of limited interest to laypersons, most of whom have probably never even heard of the concept of restorative justice.

Given the results of their study the authors' conclusions are somewhat unsurprising. They favor expanding restorative justice programs and securing funding to make them available to more victims and offenders. While this can be a difficult task in an era of ever-shrinking budgets, one can certainly make the case that research such as this provides a powerful tool for proponents. To the extent that research drives public policy, advocates of restorative justice approaches can take heart in the authors' conclusions.

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Copyright 2004 by the author, Darren A. Wheeler.