INTRODUCTION: Restorative and Responsive Human Services

Abstract

Restorative justice coupled with responsive regulatory strategies help chart practical pathways for moving from healing to problem solving and contributes to the development of theory and research relevant to tackling complex social problems. In the face of increasing evidence that despotic, authoritarian or simply invisible powerful hands control matters in everyday life for most citizens, the marriage of restorative justice and responsive regulation aims to encourage both the sense of possibility and responsibility. Both are vital components of innovative, purposeful and meaningful responses to complex human services challenges. Restorative justice and responsive regulation offer a path forward for the timely sorting out of injustice in all spheres of human relations. Restorative and responsive regulation is offered as a relational approach to program and service delivery and to engaging with the programs and providers themselves in holding to principled courses of action.