Handing back the conflict
Oct 06, 2009
By Martin Wright.
A thought adapted from what one police officer said at a conference yesterday:
When there is a conflict, the conventional approach is to separate the people and tell them what to do; but in the restorative approach, the police officer (or teacher, or mediator) brings them together and asks them what they will do.
That seems to sum up the idea of handing back the conflict to its owners, assisted but not controlled by a third party; it is an expression of faith in people's ability to find common ground. That's what a non-authoritarian society would be like, with the use of authority as the last resort to protect people from each other or themselves.
The conference was held by a new organization called 'Why me?’ Will Riley and Peter Woolf, a victim and a career criminal respectively, founded it. Both of them say that the experience of their restorative meeting turned their lives around. They want to campaign for all victims to have the opportunity to ask for a restorative meeting if their offender is known. They have raised some funds, and plan to appoint a director in the New Year.
Visit their website.
