Restorative Justice Workshop

Catalog description

In recent decades, courts, communities and schools are returning to restorative methods to address family issues such as child guardianship; escalating violence in our schools and streets; reintegrating prisoners into their communities; making decisions about appropriate sentencing; and the role of victims in the process. In each context, the same issues must be addressed: who is involved, what are the needs of the parties, and what can be done to resolve the issues at hand. This one credit course will be conducted in workshop format over the course of one weekend. Students will be able to identify the core principles underlying the restorative justice paradigm, compare and contrast restorative and retributive justice models, and learn the basic elements of conflict resolution techniques through a restorative lens. We will address the history of restorative justice and students will be trained on a restorative dialogue process.