Philip Zimbardo’s 2007 book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, provides an in-depth description and evaluation of his 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. To study the dynamics of prison, this famous experiment randomly assigned college student to be guards or inmates in a mock prison. Within a very short time the project had [...]

1.    Take relationships seriously, envisioning yourself in an interconnected web of people, institutions and the environment. 2.    Try to be aware of the impact – potential as well as actual – of your actions on others and the environment. 3.    When your actions negatively impact others, take responsibility by acknowledging and seeking [...]

My wife and I just returned from another lovely visit to New Zealand – my 8th since 1994. When we arrived at the AUT (Auckland University of Technology) apartment where we have stayed the last few years, Patrice, the manager, handed us the keys to our apartment and said, “Welcome home.” In fact, next to [...]

“Much of qualitative research,” writes researcher Michelle Fine, “has reproduced…a colonizing discourse of the ‘Other.’”  So also, she might have added, has photography.  So also has justice. (See “Working the Hyphens:  Reinventing Self and Other in Qualitative Research” in Denzin & Lincoln eds., Handbook of Qualitative Research, 1st Ed.) Nils Christie has spoken of this otherness as [...]

Stanford Law Professor Herbert Packer has argued that two opposing justice orientations dominate U.S. policy debates: crime control vs. due process. Could a restorative justice orientation provide a “third way?” that transcends these poles? The following identifies some assumptions of each. Crime control orientation: emphasis on order and security Order is essential in society so [...]

James Gilligan, in his important book Violence:  Reflections of a National Epidemic, says that all violence is an effort to do justice or to undo injustice. That is, violence – and much offending behavior in general – is a response to experiences or perceptions of victimization. Experiences of victimization or trauma, in short, can help [...]

Thanks to Brian Gumm, our web guru at CJP, you can now subscribe to this blog via email or RSS feed.  If you sign up for email notice you will received an email notice when a new entry is posted.  You’ll find the sign-up links in the right column. Several people or articles have described [...]

The topic of shame has become a controversial issue in restorative justice.  I’m convinced that an awareness of shame and its dynamics is critical for the field but I also believe there are serious dangers of misunderstanding and misuse. It seems clear that shame plays a major role in human psychology and interactions.  It is [...]

During the last several weeks I turned 65.  I also discovered the field of arts-based research (ABR). These two events are more connected than they may seem.  As I contemplate moving toward semi-retirement, I have been thinking that I might devote more of my attention to the arts and to their intersection with restorative justice. [...]

Following the recent 2nd Annual Conference of Restorative Justice Practices International I had the privilege of spending several days on Salt Spring Island off the coast of Vancouver, British Columbia, with three experienced restorative justice practitioners who are former students of mine – Catherine Bargen, Aaron Lyons and Matthew Hartman.  Our conversations were wide-ranging while [...]