Our sense of justice: Values, justice and punishment

Abstract

As much as the criminological community has endorsed John Braithwaite's theory of shaming, and the idea, concept and practice of restorative justice, as little attention criminologists have paid to the conceptual framework where he situated these ideas. A Republican Theory of Criminal Justice - the subtitle to Not Just Deserts which was written in collaboration with political philosopher Philip Pettit (1990) - was published shortly after the path breaking Crime, Shame and Reintegration (1989), and in his collection of essays Braithwaite (2002: 12) reiterated and strengthened the link between restorative justice and a republican perspective. He named the following dimensions of restorative justice as important from a "republican perspective": "restoring property loss, restoring injury, restoring a sense of security, restoring dignity, restoring a sense of empowerment, restoring deliberative democracy, restoring harmony based on a feeling that justice has been done, and restoring social support." In Not Just Deserts he broadened the republican perspective and transcended the field of restorative justice. He called for a "Republican Criminology" to address the problem of inequality as one of genuine concern for criminologists (1995a), and embedded the emerging theory of regulation and criminal justice ("Speaking softly and carrying sticks") in a republican perspective on the separation of powers (1997).