When I wrote Changing Lenses in the 1980s, I positioned the concepts of retributive and restorative justice as opposites.  Later, in The Little Book of Restorative Justice, I acknowledged that this was not always helpful and, in fact, masked some important commonalities between their underling assumptions.   Now I want to go further and explore the [...]

I’ve always assumed that the ubiquitous erectile dysfunction ads in the media today were a recent abomination.  Turns out I was wrong.  One of the first radio pioneers to realize the potential of the electronic media was a “doctor” John Romulus Brinkley (his medical degree was purchased by mail order from Eclectic Medical University in [...]

We often equate restorative justice with encounter.  In its “original” form – the model of practice that led to the establishment of this field – this meant a facilitated encounter between victim and offender.  Paul MCold, in an early issue of Contemporary Justice Review, has taken it further:  in what he calls a “purist” view, [...]

I was honored and inspired recently to be part of a “Visual Restoration” opening at the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia.  This was a culmination of a two-year restorative justice arts program.  Two large outside murals resulted  and a new book about the project, entitled Visual Representation, was released at this opening.  I was fortunate [...]

Recently my daughter Nicole and I walked through the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, now a museum. I had been there before for an opening – in fact, my exhibit of lifers has been shown there – but had never been through this historic prison. I have posted a few photos of the prison on [...]

As my colleague Lisa Schirch suggests in The Little Book of Strategic Peacebuilding, here at CJP we use the term peacebuilding as an umbrella concept to include many fields of activity that contribute to just and peaceful societies. Colleague Barry Hart uses a wheel diagram to illustrate this. Each segment or spoke is a way [...]

Lately I have been tutoring some of my photography students in portrait photography. Since these are one-on-one sessions, we take turns sitting for one another as we experiment with lighting, angles and poses. My portraits on the masthead of this blog and on the CJP restorative justice page were made by Pushpika Weerakoon in one [...]

“My soul cries out, let the fires of your justice burn,” the congregation sings on this Sunday. I lean over to my wife: “What does that mean?” “Maybe it means God is passionate about justice,” she whispers with a twinkle in her eye. True enough, but she knows that I think there’s more to it. [...]

A colleague says unkind things about you behind your back and you hear about it. She comes to you and says, “I’m sorry if I hurt you.” How does that feel? Now consider the same scenario but this time she says, “I’m sorry that I hurt you.” This feels better, doesn’t it? What a difference [...]

To keep me entertained during church when I was young, my parents would give me two small plastic dogs – one black, one white – each with a magnet glued to its feet.  When two similar poles of the magnets were put together, the dogs would repel one another.  Turned so opposite poles were aligned, [...]