Restorative justice and the culture of control

A profound change has occurred, during the last half century, in patterns and strategies for handling crime in modern societies. During the same period, the campaign for restorative justice has increasingly influenced penal policy and practice. In stories about correctional change, these developments are often linked by suggestions that the success of the campaign for restorative justice puts in question notions that we are experiencing relentless penal regression. This article argues for a different narrative, in which the rise of restorative justice is located within a broader disenchantment with large-scale, institutionalised ways of handling crime.