The desirability and feasibility of restorative justice

Abstract

This article defends two main arguments. The first examines the philosophical grounds for welcoming restorative justice reforms of the penal institution, drawing on a neo-republican conception of freedom. The second argument is that, despite appearances to the contrary, these reforms would fit with what psychology suggests about our morally evolved punitive dispositions. They are not, therefore, reform proposals of a psychologically infeasible kind.