Restorative Justice Theory and Practice: Addressing the Discrepancy

by Theo Gavrielides

Restorative justice was reborn not out of formal structures and legislation, but of voluntary action by enthusiastic and dedicated practitioners from around the world. As the restorative tradition is expanding to deal with crimes, ages and situations that it has never addressed before and as it starts to make sense in national, and also regional and international fora, the responsibilities of both restorative justice practitioners and academics redouble. Bridges must be built in order to synthesise. The tensions characterising the field have to congeal to create a stable platform. Awareness must be increased both at the macro and micro level. This book aspires to respond to this urgent need. This book was written to give the opportunity to restorative justice practitioners to identify problems that they faced during implementation and which could help understand the gap that appears to exist between the theoretical and practical development of restorative justice.

CONTENTS: Foreword; Part ONE: Arguing and analysing the literature; Restorative theory and practice in context; Restorative justice: The Perplexing concept; The International Dimension of Restorative Justice: From Theory to Policy and Practice; Part Two: Measuring the Gap between the restorative justice theory and practice; Findings from Survey I: The International Practitioners’ Account; Analysing and Triangulating the Findings of Survey I; The Findings: Problems in the Practical and Theoretical Development of Restorative Justice; Findings from Survey II: The UK Practitioners’ Account; Part Three: Pushing the Barriers—Findings from Survey III and IV on the Application of Restorative Justice with Hate Crime and Sexual Offences:; Part Four: Critical Reflections; Mind the Gap Between the Restorative Justice Theory and Practice; A Way Forward; Recommendations for the Restorative Justice Movement; Conclusion.

301 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 14, 2007

About the author

Since 2001, I have been the Founder and Director of the IARS International Institute. I am also the Founder and co-Director of the Restorative Justice for All Institute (RJ4All).

Apart from my NGO and practical experience, I am also active in academia. I am an Adjunct Professor at the School of Criminology (Centre for Restorative Justice) of Simon Fraser University as well as a Visiting Professor at Buckinghamshire New University. I also served as a Visiting Professorial Research Fellow at Panteion University of Social & Political Science (Greece) and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research (ICCCR) at Open University (UK).

I am also the Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journals:
International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare
Youth Voice Journal
Internet Journal of Restorative Justice

I have several voluntary positions such as been a Trustee of the Anne Frank Trust, an Advisory Board Member of the Institute for Diversity Research, Inclusivity, Communities and Society (IDRICS) and a Member of the Scrutiny and Involvement Panel of the Crown Prosecution Service (London).

Previously, I was the Chief Executive of Race on the Agenda, a social policy think-tank focusing on race equality. I also worked at the Ministry of Justice as the Human Rights Advisor of the Strategy Directorate. There, I led on the Human Rights Insight Project, which aimed to identify strategies that will further implement the principles underlying the Human Rights Act 1998 and improve public services. He also advised on the Ministry's Education, Information and Advice strategy.

During 2002-2004, I worked as a Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) alongside Professorial Research Fellow Francesca Klug OBE.

I am also a legal counsel specialising in criminal law, human rights and EU law. I taught criminal law and common law reasoning and institutions at the University of London, and have acted as a human rights and criminal justice advisor for various chambers and policy bodies including the Independent Advisory Group of the London Criminal Justice Partnership.

I obtained a Doctorate in Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (PhD, 2005) and a Masters in Human Rights Law from Nottingham University (LL.M in Human Rights Law, 2000). I graduated from the Faculty of Laws of the National University of Athens and practised law at Gavrielides & Co, my father's law firm. This is where my sister and my brother also work as solicitors.


I love writing and thus I have had the pleasure of publishing published on various social justice issues, restorative justice, equality and race equality, human rights and youth justice. My 2007 monograph “Restorative Justice Theory and Practice” was published by the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control affiliated with the United Nations (HEUNI) . In 2012, I edited "Rights and Restoration within Youth Justice", in 2013 I co-edited 'Reconstructing Restorative Justice Philosophy' and in 2015 'The Philosophy of Restorative Justice' both published by Ashgate (now Routledge). I also edited 'Offenders no More' by NOVA Publishers (2015) and 'Restorative Justice, The Library of Essays on Justice' (2015) by Ashgate Publishing.

I currently working on two books. My next monograph is titled 'Race, Power & Restorative Justice: The dialogue we Never Had' and it will be published in 2018 by Routledge. I am also editing 'The Routledge Handbook of Restorative Justice' due to be published in 2018.