Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding

by Howard Zehr 

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Vengeance and bitter violence have had their turns—without redemptive results. How should we as a society respond to wrongdoing? When a crime occurs or an injustice is done, what needs to happen? What does justice require?

Howard Zehr, known worldwide for his pioneering work in transforming our understandings of justice, here proposes workable Principles and Practices for making restorative justice both possible and useful. First he explores how restorative justice is different from criminal justice. Then, before letting those appealing observations drift out of reach, into theoretical space, Zehr presents Restorative Justice Practices. Zehr undertakes a massive and complex subject and puts it in graspable form, without reducing or trivializing it.

This is a handbook, a vehicle for moving our society toward healing and wholeness. This is a sourcebook, a starting point for handling brokenness with hard work and hope. This resource is also suitable for academic classes and workshops, for conferences and trainings.

By the author of Changing Lenses; Transcending: Reflections of Crime Victims; and Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Serving Life Sentences.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers the following in the area of restorative justice: 

• MA in Restorative Justice
• Graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice
• Webinars in Restorative Justice topics
• Courses in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Restorative Justice

by Evelin Aquino, Heather Bligh Manchester, and Anita Wadhwa 

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The authors illuminate a theory of youth engagement in restorative justice that seeks to create systems change for more equitable schools. The authors define youth engagement in restorative justice as partnering with young people most impacted by structural injustice as changemakers in all aspects of restorative practices including community building, healing, and the transformation of institutions. Based on Adam Fletcher’s version of the Ladder of Youth Engagement, coupled with Barbara Love’s model of liberatory consciousness and an analysis of youth engagement in Restorative Justice in three different regions—Western Massachusetts, Oakland, and Houston—the authors provide a theoretical contribution: Youth Engagement in Restorative Justice grounded in liberatory consciousness.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers the following in the area of restorative justice: 

• MA in Restorative Justice
• Graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice
• Webinars in Restorative Justice topics
• Courses in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Restorative Justice

by Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz and Judy H. Mullet 
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Can an overworked teacher possibly turn an unruly incident with students in an opportunity for learning, growth, and community building? Yes, say the authors, who give practical guidance and examples.

EMU offers the following options for study in the area of restorative justice in education:

• EMU’s MA in Education offers a graduate certificate and a master’s degree in restorative justice in education.  They also offer an annual restorative justice in education conference.
• The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers a certificate and a degree in restorative justice. 

If you are not sure which program is right for you, please email the Admissions Director at cjpadmissions@emu.edu. We will be happy to connect you with the program that meets your goals.

by David R. Karp 
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Three models of campus practice, considerations when starting a campus program and how to include restorative justice in a student conduct code.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers the following in the area of restorative justice: 

• MA in Restorative Justice
• Graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice
• Webinars in Restorative Justice topics
• Courses in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Restorative Justice

by Barb Toews 
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How people in prisons can live restorative justice principles and change prison culture as well as society.

Barb Toews is a graduate of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (MA ’00) and holds a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research (’14).

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers the following in the area of restorative justice: 

• MA in Restorative Justice
• Graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice
• Webinars in Restorative Justice topics
• Courses in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Restorative Justice

by Fania E. Davis

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In our era of mass incarceration, gun violence, and Black Lives Matters, a handbook showing how racial justice and restorative justice can transform the African-American experience in America.

This timely work will inform scholars and practitioners on the subjects of pervasive racial inequity and the healing offered by restorative justice practices. Addressing the intersectionality of race and the US criminal justice system, social activist Fania E. Davis explores how restorative justice has the capacity to disrupt patterns of mass incarceration through effective, equitable, and transformative approaches. Eager to break the still-pervasive, centuries-long cycles of racial prejudice and trauma in America, Davis unites the racial justice and restorative justice movements, aspiring to increase awareness of deep-seated problems as well as positive action toward change.

Davis highlights real restorative justice initiatives that function from a racial justice perspective; these programs are utilized in schools, justice systems, and communities, intentionally seeking to ameliorate racial disparities and systemic inequities

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers the following in the area of conflict transformation:

MA in Conflict Transformation 
Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation
Courses in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Conflict Transformation

by Katherine Evans and Dorothy Vaandering

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A handbook for teachers and administrators on creating just and equitable learning environments for students; building and maintaining healthy relationships; healing harm and transforming conflict.

Much more than a response to harm, restorative justice nurtures relational, interconnected school cultures. The wisdom embedded within its principles and practices is being welcomed at a time when exclusionary discipline and zero tolerance policies are recognized as perpetuating student apathy, disproportionality, and the school-to-prison pipeline.

Relying on the wisdom of early proponents of restorative justice, the daily experiences of educators, and the authors’ extensive experience as classroom teachers and researchers, this Little Book guides the growth of restorative justice in education (RJE) into the future. Incorporating activities, stories, and examples throughout the book, three major interconnected and equally important aspects of restorative justice in education are explained and applied: creating just and equitable learning environments; building and maintaining healthy relationships; healing harm and transforming conflict. Chapters include:

The Way We Do Things
A Brief History of Restorative Justice in Education
Beliefs and Values in Restorative Justice in Education
Creating just and Equitable Learning Environments
Nurturing Healthy relationships
Repairing Harm and Transforming Conflict
A Tale of Two Schools: Thoughts and Sustainability

The Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education is a reference that practitioners can turn to repeatedly for clarity and consistency as they implement restorative justice in educational settings.

by Julie Friesen and Wendy Meek

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As our global population ages, conflicts and difficult conversations emerge. How will older adults decide who will make end-of-life health and financial decisions for them? When will dad need to move out of his home and into long-term care? We can’t have mom living with us anymore because it’s just too hard. Why are my children fighting over where I will live? Why is my son taking money from me? These are challenging scenarios that ever-increasing numbers of people are facing. Sometimes these difficulties are discussed in catastrophic terms:
Untenable health-care costs
Exhausted pension funds
Crises in home-care and long-term housing
And other concerns

Certainly, there are some reasons to worry; however, the challenges facing older adults can be an opportunity for positive change. The Little Book of Restorative Justice for Older Adults is about providing safe and respectful processes to assist in resolving conflict and addressing abuse involving older adults, families, caregivers, and communities. Authors Julie Friesen and Wendy Meek explore ideas to help connect and support people, building on the strengths and capacities of older adults and their families, in order to strengthen communities. Restorative justice dialogues help older adults and their families talk constructively and safely to find ways to move forward together.

by  Judah Oudshoorn, Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, Michelle Jackett 

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Here is a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at the impact of sexual abuse demonstrating how restorative justice can create hope through trauma.

Restorative justice is gaining acceptance for addressing harm and crime. Interventions have been developed for a wide range of wrongdoing. This book considers the use of restorative justice in response to sexual abuse. Rather than a blueprint or detailing a specific set of programs, it is more about mapping possibilities. It allows people to carefully consider its use in responding to violent crimes such as sexual abuse.

Criminal justice approaches tend to sideline and re-traumatize victims, and punish offenders to the detriment of accountability. Alternatively, restorative justice centers on healing for victims, while holding offenders meaningfully accountable. Criminal justice responses tend to individualize the problem, and catch marginalized communities, such as ethnic minorities, within its net. Restorative justice recognizes that sexual abuse is a form of gender-based violence. The table of contents includes:
Understanding Sexual Abuse
Restorative Justice
Victims: A Case Study
Offenders: A Case Study
Limits and Possibilities
And much more!

Community-based practices are needed, sometimes in conjunction with, and sometimes to counteract, traditional criminal justice responses.

by Howard Zehr

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Restorative justice pioneer Howard Zehr is also an accomplished photographer. He begins his latest book with a confession—"I have written this book in part to encourage myself to slow down, to heighten my imagination, to renew myself while I gain a new view of the creation and the creator." With this book, Zehr makes a gift to anyone who would like to couple photography with seeing and thinking more deeply. In each chapter he offers a Purpose, a Problem, and an Activity with a camera in order to "practice mindfulness." You'll not need a fancy camera, but if you have one it won't hurt. Zehr's chapter-by-chapter exercises are aimed at heightening visual awareness and imagination—all while doing good and working for justice. A title in The Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding Series.

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This clearly articulated statement offers a hopeful and workable approach to conflict—that eternally beleaguering human situation. John Paul Lederach is internationally recognized for his breakthrough thinking and action related to conflict on all levels—person-to-person, factions within communities, warring nations. He explores why “conflict transformation is more appropriate than “conflict resolution” or “management.” But he refuses to be drawn into impractical idealism. Conflict Transformation is an idea with a deep reach. Its practice, says Lederach, requires “both solutions and social change.” It asks not simply “How do we end something not desired?”, but “How do we end something destructive and build something desired?” How do we deal with the immediate crisis, as well as the long-term situation? What disciplines make such thinking and practices possible?

Lederach, the founding director of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU, writes out of his years of work in Central America, in Somalia, in Bosnia, and in Ireland.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers the following in the area of conflict transformation:

• MA in Conflict Transformation 
• Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation
• Courses in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Conflict Transformation

by Lisa Schirch 
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So we’d all like a more peaceful world—no wars, no poverty, no more racism, no community disputes, no office tensions, no marital skirmishes.

Lisa Schirch in her timely book sets forth paths to such realities. In fact, she points a way to more than the absence of conflict. She foresees justpeace—a sustainable state of affairs because it is a peace which insists on justice.

How to arrive there is the subject of this book. Peacebuilding recognizes the complexity and the effort this elusive ideal requires. Schirch singles out four critical actions that must be undertaken if peace is to take root at any level:

1. waging conflict nonviolently
2. reducing direct violence
3. transforming relationships
4. building capacity

She never imagines this to be a quick—or an individual—task. Her clear and incisive strategy encourages enabling many approaches to peace, honestly assessing who holds power, and persuading and coercing, but always with keen judgment and precise timing.

Schirch left her faculty position at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding to devote her time to advancing more strategic approaches to bringing about sustainable peace. She is currently North American Research Director for the Toda Peace Institute and Senior Policy Advisor with the Alliance for Peacebuilding. When her schedule permits, Schirch teaches in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute. 

The larger peacebuilding framework is woven into all of the academic programs offered by the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU. 

• MA in Conflict Transformation 
• Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation
• Courses in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Conflict Transformation

by Thomas Norman DeWolf and Jodie Geddes

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This book introduces Coming to the Table’s approach to a continuously evolving set of purposeful theories, ideas, experiments, guidelines, and intentions, all dedicated to facilitating racial healing and transformation.

People of color, relative to white people, fall on the negative side of virtually all measurable social indicators. The “living wound” is seen in the significant disparities in average household wealth, unemployment and poverty rates, infant mortality rates, access to healthcare and life expectancy, education, housing, and treatment within, and by, the criminal justice system.

Coming to the Table (CTTT) was born in 2006 when two dozen descendants from both sides of the system of enslavement gathered together at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), in collaboration with the Center for Justice & Peacebuilding (CJP). Stories were shared and friendships began. The participants began to envision a more connected and truthful world that would address the unresolved and persistent effects of the historic institution of slavery. This Little Book shares Coming to the Table’s vision for the United States—a vision of a just and truthful society that acknowledges and seeks to heal from the racial wounds of the past. Readers will learn practical skills for better listening; discover tips for building authentic, accountable relationships; and will find specific and varied ideas for taking action.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers the following in the area of conflict transformation:

• MA in Conflict Transformation 
• Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation
• Courses in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Conflict Transformation

by Ron Kraybill and Evelyn Wright 
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Some subjects seem too hot for a group to discuss sanely. Not necessarily. The Little Book of "Cool Tools for Hot Topics" -- Group Tools to Facilitate Meetings When Things Are Hot shows how to help people hear each other when they feel like shouting; how to focus on the issues at stake rather than having a war of personalities; how to employ actual practices for better understanding (interviews, small-group discussions, role-reversal presentations); and how to move a group toward making a decision that all can honestly support.   

Ron Kraybill was a member of the faculty at CJP when he co-wrote this book with graduate certificate student Evelyn Wright (’07).  

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers skills training opportunities through the following programs.

• The Summer Peacebuilding Institute
• Professional Education programs

by Lisa Schirch and David Campt 
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A transforming and freshly hopeful approach to handling tension-filled topics, using principles of dialogue. For conversations around the table, in the boardroom, or within the community.

Lisa Schirch, a former faculty member with the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, is now the North American Research Director for the Toda Peace Institute and Senior Policy Advisor with the Alliance for Peacebuilding. When her schedule permits, Schirch teaches in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute. David Campt has taught at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute. His most recent work is focused on working with white allies for racial justice.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers skills training opportunities through the following programs.

• The Summer Peacebuilding Institute
• Professional Education programs

by Kay Pranis 
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This book is written by globally sought after practitioner and scholar, Kay Pranis. Kay learned about peacemaking circles in her work in restorative justice in the mid-90s. Her initial teachers in the circle work were Barry Stuart, a judge in Yukon, Canada, and Mark Wedge and Harold Gatensby, First Nations people of Yukon. Since that initial exposure to the use of peacemaking circles in the justice system Kay has been involved in developing the use of peacemaking circles in schools, social services, churches, families, museums, universities, municipal planning and workplaces.  Kay has a particular interest in the use of circles to support social justice efforts addressing racial, economic, class and gender inequities. That interest includes the use of peacemaking circles to understand and respond to historical harms to groups of people.

Kay Pranis offers circle process training at The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU at least three times per year.

• During the Summer Peacebuilding Institute
• During the school year through the professional training program.

by Alan MacRae and Howard Zehr 
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Family Group Conferences (FGCs) are the primary forum in New Zealand for dealing with juvenile crime as well as child welfare issues. This third volume in The Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding Series is about the juvenile justice system that is built around these conferences.

Since their introduction in New Zealand, Family Group Conferences have been adopted and adapted in many places throughout the world. They have been applied in many arenas including child welfare, school discipline, and criminal justice, both juvenile and adult. In fact, FGCs have emerged as one of the most promising models of restorative justice.

This Little Book describes the basics and rationale for this approach to juvenile justice, as well as how an FGC is conducted.

Allan MacRae is Southern Regional Coordinator for Youth Justice in New Zealand, overseeing youth justice for much of the South Island. Howard Zehr is one of the founders of the field of restorative justice and is often called upon to interpret restorative justice in many parts of the world.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers skills training opportunities through the following programs.

• The Summer Peacebuilding Institute
• Professional Education programs

by Jayne Seminare Docherty 
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Most books on negotiation assume that the negotiators are in a stable setting. But what about those far thornier times when negotiation needs to happen while other fundamental factors are in uproarious change— deciding which parent will have custody of their child while a divorce is underway; bargaining between workers and management during the course of a merger and downsizing; or negotiating an environmental dispute that involves corporations, government agencies, and tribal communities. This book brings the lessons about negotiation from Docherty’s study of the standoff between the Branch Davidians and federal law enforcement agents (Learning Lessons from Waco) to bear on more common problems.

Jayne Seminare Docherty joined the faculty at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU in 2001. She became the Academic Programs Director of CJP in 2013.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers skills training opportunities through the following programs.

• The Summer Peacebuilding Institute
• Professional Education programs

by Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz 
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Victim-offender dialogues are a way to hold offenders accountable to the person harmed and to give victims a voice about how to put things right. Not to be confused with reconciliation, mediation or negotiation, victim-offender conferencing is a way to acknowledge harms that brings in the voices of those who have been victimized, including the broader community.

Lorraine Stutzman-Amstutz teaches in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute, bringing her extensive experience into the classroom.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers skills training opportunities through the following programs.

• The Summer Peacebuilding Institute
• Professional Education programs

by David Anderson Hooker

When conflicts become ingrained in communities, people lose hope. Dialogue is necessary but never sufficient, and often actions prove inadequate to produce substantial change. Even worse, chosen actions create more conflict because people have different lived experiences, priorities, and approaches to transformation. So what’s the story?

David Anderson Hooker is Associate Professor of the Practice of Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame. He is also a STAR trainer and co-author of Transforming Historical Harms. When time permits, he is an instructor at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers skills training opportunities through the following programs.

• The Summer Peacebuilding Institute
• Professional Education programs

by Carolyn Yoder 
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How do we address trauma, interrupt cycles of violence, and build resilience in a turbulent world of endless wars, nationalism, othering, climate crisis, racism, pandemics, and terrorism? This fully updated edition offers a practical framework, processes, and useful insights.

The traumas of our world go beyond individual or one-time events. They are collective, ongoing, and the legacy of historical injustices. How do we stay awake rather than numbing or responding violently? How do we cultivate individual and collective courage and resilience?
 
This Little Book provides a justice-and-conflict-informed community approach to addressing trauma in nonviolent, neurobiologically sound ways that interrupt cycles of violence and meet basic human needs for justice and security. In these pages, you’ll find the core framework and tools of the internationally acclaimed Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program developed at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in response to 9/11. A startlingly helpful approach.

Carolyn Yoder was the first director of the STAR program at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. She currently directs her own online program Peace After Trauma and continues to partner with STAR and CJP.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU weaves trauma and resilience concepts and practices into all graduate education programs. For focused training and education in trauma and resilience please consider:

• The STAR program
• Courses in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute 

by David Brubaker and Ruth Zimmerman 
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The best way to change the world may be one organization at a time. With this ambitious claim, the authors of this highly readable primer provide insightful analysis for evaluating and improving the health of any organization. They advocate a "systems approach," which views organizations as living systems, interconnected in their various departments, and interfacing with their environments… Each chapter contains examples from the authors' varied experiences with organizational change and conflict, written from a spirited, hopeful approach for creating a better world.

David Brubaker directs the MBA program at EMU and teaches at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. Ruth Hoover Zimmerman (MA ’02) was the co-director of CJP before leaving to serve as the Country Program Manager for India at World Vision US.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding collaborates with the MBA program to offer a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship. This certificate may be combined with either the Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation or the Master of Arts in Restorative Justice.

by Chris Marshall 
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Jesus and justice? A close examination of how the Bible has profoundly impacted Western culture, what biblical justice looks like, and what it means to strive for “what makes for peace.”

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers the following programs.

• Dual Degree Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation
• Dual Degree Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Restorative Justice

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While not part of the Little Book series, this book by the founding director of the program that became the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding explores a question that was foundational to the program. “What if reconciliation is central to the biblical message?” Part scriptural study and part practical toolkit for understanding and dealing with conflict, this book invites Christians specifically to consider their calling to be peace makers in the world.

CJP welcomes participants of all faiths and of no faith to bring their full identities into the conversation about building a more just and peaceful world.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU offers the following programs.

• Dual Degree Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation
• Dual Degree Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Restorative Justice