"A fine book. Cogently argued and nuanced, a serious contribution to thinking on restorative justice..."John BraithwaiteOne of the most important developments in crime and its control over recent years has been the emergence of a dynamic campaign promoting restorative justice as an alternative to standard ways of responding to crime, i.e. legal prosecution and state punishment. Accompanying this has been a rapidly growing literature on the subject, from the UK, North America, Australasia and elsewhere.The main aim of this book is to bring together a selection of extracts from the most important and influential contributions to the restorative justice literature and its emergent philosophy, accompanying these with an informative commentary providing context and explanation where necessary. The book includes by both well known proponents of restorative justice, work by some of the key critics of the restorative justice movement, along with work from a number of writers not directly involved in either advocacy or critique of restorative justice, but whose work is crucial to an understanding of it. The book is organised into five main sections:the concept of restorative justicehistorical, anthropological and theological roots of restorative justicethe goals shy; restoring victims and offenders and preventing crimethe restorative processcritical perspectivesThe book provides a unique sourcebook, bringing together writings from a wide range of often inaccessible sources shy; essential reading both for students taking courses in criminal justice/restorative justice as well as practitioners involved in the administration of criminal justice who need an understanding of what restorative justice is about and how it has developed.