Desistance and restorative justice: it’s now or never

Abstract

Editorial: This special issue of Restorative Justice: An International Journal explores the synergies between two of the fastest growing, most influential developments in academic criminology and applied criminal justice practice over the past three decades: restorative justice and ‘desistance from crime’. The issue grows out of a cross-national, comparative project involving studies in Austria, Belgium and Northern Ireland (see Hofinger & Pelikan, this issue; Lauwaert & Aertsen, this issue; Marsh & Maruna, this issue). And, the timing could not be more urgent for a fundamental re-evaluation of the idea and institutions of justice that these movements have provoked.