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Contemporary Justice Review
Issues in Criminal, Social, and Restorative Justice
Volume 18, 2015 - Issue 3
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Articles

Problematizing the healing metaphor of restorative justice

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Pages 257-273 | Received 20 Nov 2013, Accepted 10 Dec 2014, Published online: 06 Jul 2015
 

Abstract

Beginning with the premise that our linguistic and cognitive systems are fundamentally metaphorical in nature, this study seeks to explore the predominant metaphor of restorative justice (RJ), the metaphor of healing. Metaphor choice is important, particularly in conflict situations, as they encourage and discourage particular behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions. The conceptualization of RJ as a healing process (where participants heal the wounds caused by offending behaviors) is pervasive and integrated into the academic literature. Perhaps either due to its banality or its seeming beneficiality, we assert that the healing metaphor has not received sufficiently critical reflection. We examined primary metaphor use among RJ facilitators using 319 single-spaced pages of interview data gathered from 20 RJ facilitators. Our results suggest that the healing metaphor is potentially problematic for victims, offenders, and facilitators. We suggest an alternative, garden metaphor, for consideration as an alternative.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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