Security, With Care
  • Paperback ISBN: 9781552664254
  • Paperback Price: $34.95 CAD
  • Hardcover ISBN: 9781552664322
  • Hardcover Price: $59.95 CAD
  • Publication Date: Feb 2011
  • Rights: World
  • Pages: 256

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Security, With Care

Restorative Justice and Healthy Societies

Elizabeth M. Elliott

“I learned that the problems were much deeper than a flawed criminal justice system, and that our work needed to begin in our relationships with each other and the natural world, and most importantly, with ourselves.” (from the preface)

 

Restorative justice, as it exists in Canada and the U.S., has been co-opted and relegated to the sidelines of the dominant criminal justice system. In Security, With Care, Elizabeth M. Elliott argues that restorative justice cannot be actualized solely within the criminal justice system. If it isn’t who we are, says Elliott, then the policies will never be sustainable. Restorative justice must be more than a program within the current system — it must be a new paradigm for responding to harm and conflict. Facilitating this shift requires a rethinking of the assumptions around punishment and justice, placing emphasis instead on values and relationships. But if we can achieve this change, we have the potential to build a healthier, more ethical and more democratic society.

 

Contents

Preface • Introduction • The March of Folly • “If Punishment Worked, I’d be Saint Andrew” • Justice as a Human Problem • Restorative Justice: A Vision of the Good • Restorative Justice and the Retributive Legal Context • Values and Processes: “Being the Change” • The Geometry of Individuals and Relationships • Psychology of Restorative Justice: The Shame of Being Yourself • Psychology of Restorative Justice: Trauma and Healing • Restorative Justice as Community Development and Harm • Prevention • Conclusion • References • Index

About the Author

Elizabeth M. Elliott is an associate professor and co-director of the Centre for Restorative Justice at the School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University. 

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Reviews

Review in Mission Record

 Introducing Restorative Justice

 

 

Local Author Discusses Unique West Coast Methods

 

Mission resident Elizabeth Elliott is launching her new book, Security, With Care: Restorative Justice and Healthy Societies this weekend at the Mission Arts Centre.

 

It’s the first book of its kind outlining the basics of restorative justice and offering different ways to respond to social and criminal problems than what we are used to.

 

“The system currently used was developed in the 19th century and all social institutions need to be revisited, given the enormous changes that have happened,” said Elliott.

 

“Canada is one of the major world contributors to the re-emergence of these old ways of responding to harm in a community of society, and I felt that our story also needed to be told,” explained Elliott. “That said, the influence in the book comes more from west coast approaches to restorative justice, influenced strongly by the critical contributions of aboriginal traditions and the beliefs, and the recent influences of Mennonite practices of conflict resolution.”

 

Elliott began noticing this movement when she was a criminal justice social worker in the 1980s, who felt the needs of those who committed harm and those who had been harmed were not being well met by the traditional system.            

 

“The concept was in the forefront in Howard Zehr’s 1990 book Changing Lenses. Up until that time, mediation had been used as an alternative to incarceration and a way to bring victims into the process more fully,” said Elliott.

 

“The idea in Zehr’s book gave us a paradigmatic framework for the bigger picture, and so restorative justice finally took off.”

 

Elliott believes it is a better way for both parties in a conflict to heal and move on. She has also adopted the philosophy as a better way to raise children and build healthy communities.

 

The local author is also an associate professor at Simon Fraser University and has introduced restorative justice to her criminology students. She co-founded the school’s Centre for Restorative Justice in the late 1990s.

 

Elliott’s book can be purchased at Murdoch’s Book Shoppe on First Avenue and the Mission Arts Council on Saturday, May 7 where she will be signing books from 1 to 4 p.m. The Mission Arts Council is located at 33529 First Ave. There will be light refreshments and everyone is welcome.

– Carol Aun, Mission Record, Thursday May 5, 2011.

 

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