Discerning justice: clarifying the role of procedural and interactional justice in restorative conferencing

ABSTRACT

Research suggests that offenders perceive restorative justice (RJ) conferences as more just and reintegrative than standard court proceedings. Yet, little research focuses on how the nature of the offense may affect these social psychological processes, and studies that investigate how offenders perceive justice typically examine justice in general, not specific types (procedural vs. interactional). Using data from the Australian Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE), we find that offense type is differentially associated with types of justice and shaming perceptions, demonstrating the need to distinguish between interactional and procedural justice to understand how various offenders experience the RJ conference.

KEYWORDS:

• Offense type
• restorative justice
• procedural justice
• interactional justice
• shaming

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heather L. Scheuerman

Heather L. Scheuerman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Justice Studies at James Madison University. She researches how social psychological concepts and processes affect behavior, including crime. Her work on restorative justice has appeared in Sociology Compass, Restorative Justice: An International Journal, Criminal Justice Policy Review, and Justice Quarterly.

Talia N. Gilbert

Talia N. Gilbert is an Analyst in the Criminal Justice Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Her work focuses on how the criminalization of poverty contributes to mass incarceration. She is a 2016 graduate of Emory University.

Shelley Keith

Shelley Keithis an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Memphis. Her research centers on the social psychological causes of crime with an emphasis on the role of identity and emotions. Her recent work has appeared in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Restorative Justice: An International Journal, and Deviant Behavior.

Karen A. Hegtvedt

Karen A. Hegtvedt is Professor of Sociology at Emory University and former coeditor of Social Psychology Quarterly. Her expertise focuses on social psychology, with emphasis on justice processes and emotions. She coauthored Social Psychology: Individuals, Interaction, and Inequality. Her articles integrate justice and legitimacy, some with applications to environmental justice.