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Summary

Bazemore, Gordon and Bell, Dee (2004). What is the Appropriate Relationship Between Restorative Justice and Treatment? In, Howard Zehr and Barb Toews, eds., Critical Issues in Restorative Justice. Monsey, New York and Cullompton, Devon, UK: Criminal Justice Press and Willan Publishing. Pp. 119-131.

Inquiring into the appropriate relationship between restorative justice and treatment, Bazemore and Bell make the following points. Treatment programs, no matter how effective, are not restorative in themselves. However, they can be carried out in more or less restorative ways when they account for the needs of victims and the community as far as possible. As for restorative justice, it can sometimes be rehabilitative. That is, it can be rehabilitative because it does not frame the problem as something that is wrong with the offender that must be “fixedâ€? by professionals. Rather, it frames the problem as a problem for a support group around the offender, and that support group can provide a solution that will increase the likelihood of offender (and victim) reintegration. On these bases, Bazemore and Bell argue that there are ways for restorative justice to maximize this potential for offender rehabilitation.

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