Who Owns Restorative Justice? Exploratory Interviews with Restorative Justice Practitioners

Restorative justice challenges the notion that the effects of crime can only be resolved by professionals, and represents a shift in power away from state control to community control of justice issues. As a different way of doing justice vying for a place in relation to the mainstream justice system, tensions exist between theory and practice. Faceto- face, semi-structured interviews with people who occupy various roles in the field of restorative justice in the Lower Mainland explored how different actors see the tensions being addressed, exacerbated and/or resolved. The sources of tension included questions repding (1) what is classified as restorative justice and if standards should be adopted; (2) who gets to provide restorative services; (3) which service providers get to take which types of cases and at what stage in the justice process, and (4) the lack of adequate, stable sources of funding for restorative justice programs.