Elizabeth Beck,Nancy P Kropf and Pamela Blume Leonard (eds),Social work and restorative justice

Reviewed by: Ian Paylor, Lancaster University, England

I was pleasantly surprised to be sent this particular book to review. I have read and reviewed a number of books on restorative justice (RJ) (mainly focusing on youth justice) but this is a first – I am not aware of any other text that seeks to analyse the relations and intersections of the two hitherto separate professional disciplines of RJ and social work.

The book is well organized and structured. There are 13 chapters and a foreword (by Mark Umbriet) and an afterword (by Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz and Howard Zehr) and a slim but useful index. The first four chapters are scene-setters with the editors contributing individually to the first three. Chapter One provides an overview whilst Chapter Two traces the history of the social work profession and in doing so ponders on whether social work has lost its appetite for social change and justice and suggests that RJ, underpinned as it is with the principles of repairing harm, stakeholder participation and transformation in community and government roles and relationships, might offer social work a chance to rediscover its commitment to social justice.

Chapters Three and Four will be very useful to those readers not familiar with the concept of RJ as they provide an excellent introduction to the concept. Chapter Three offers a review of what is exactly meant by RJ, a daunting task given that there are numerous, sometimes divergent, views on what ‘it’ is, that is handled well. The author (Pamela Blume Leonard) is obviously sympathetic to the aims and objectives of RJ but is far from uncritical of its practice.

The subtitle of the book is ‘Skills for Dialogue, Peacemaking and Reconciliation’ and Chapter Four addresses those very things by describing four processes used in RJ efforts which are discussed in the remaining chapters of the work. Carefully and systematically they explore how the four practices (Victim-Offender Dialogue, Circles, Family Group Conferencing [FGC] and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions) can be adapted to provide an additional set of tools that can assist social workers in supporting transformation for service users and in the communities in which they work. For example, the repair of harm requires that FGC allow for the making of amends and the building of relationships; the intervention theories associated with making recompense are exchange theory and a theory of earned redemption, and the relevant tasks are getting the service user to acknowledge responsibility, getting to a restorative agreement and enabling input into the FGC process by the various stakeholders. The intervention theory connected with relationship building is a theory of social support, and FGC tasks include the promotion of discussion and the creation of support systems.

The remaining chapters (collectively described as ‘settings’) are predominantly a collection of empirical studies, based on qualitative research (in the form of case studies) which highlights the extent, range and variety of restorative practices with service users in the USA (one chapter presents an example from Canada and another from Liberia); but importantly, the writers’ approach to their task has been guided by some judicious advice from the editors. The editorial team suggested that each chapter was co-authored by a social worker and a RJ theorist, researcher or practitioner. Each case study is supported by a literature review of social work and RJ initiatives centred on the chapter topic and framed by a critical analysis of the fit between social work and RJ with an acknowledgement that movement needs to occur – every settings chapter has a concluding section entitled ‘next steps’. Whilst the settings chapters (and indeed the entire book) reveal the authors commitment to care and clarity of exposition there is a degree of repetition here and the case studies were a tad saccharin for my taste.

However, it is potentially an important book, since it represents a new possible framework for the social work profession to embrace. Careful attention to the intellectual arguments presented here would enhance the chances that RJ will become more authentically a part of social work practice.