Seeking justice rooted in truth, reconciliation and forgiveness

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an overview of the philosophy and implementation of restorative justice practices, the challenges and accomplishments of which we examine across the arc of the twentieth and emerging twenty-first century. Restorative justice, we argue, is both counterintuitive and pragmatic in its application. We examine truth and reconciliation hearings, intentional peace communities, and other paragons of the restorative justice model from a macroscopic perspective. A case study offers a microscopic lens to the conflict-ridden communities in Chicago, IL, ground zero for the epidemic of handgun violence in the U. S. We conclude with a discussion of what pragmatic hope restorative justice practices might offer to embattled landscapes which stretch from foreign lands to our own communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Reconciliation
• restorative justice
• conflict resolution
• nonviolence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Geraldine Gorman

Geraldine Gorman is a Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago. She teaches Public Health Nursing, Cultural Fluency and Ethics and Grief, Loss and Dying.  Dr. Gorman has written on topics ranging from nursing's ethical mandate in times of war to restorative justice issues and jail/prison reform to the inclusion of the Humanities in Health Care education. She practices as a hospice nurse in Chicago, IL.

Andrew M. Flescher

Andrew M. Flescher is a Professor or Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine, Professor of English, and core faculty in the Program of Public Health at Stony Brook University.  He is a scholar of ethics and literature, medical humanities, biomedical ethics, comparative religious ethics, public health, and health care policy, also serving Stony Brook Hospital in a clinical setting as a Living Donor Advocate. In addition to writing several articles and book chapters, he is the author of four books: Heroes, Saints, and Ordinary Morality (2003, Georgetown University Press), The Altruistic Species (2007, Templeton Press, winner of the Choice Award), Moral Evil (2013, Georgetown University Press, winner of the Prose Award), and The Organ Shortage Crisis in America (2018, Georgetown University Press).