Samenvatting

The author advises the protagonists of restorative justice to become less paradigmatic and more pragmatic in their approach of criminal justice and victims needs and interests. The offer of a restorative procedure is not suitable for all victims, nor for all thinkable moments after the event of a crime. Tailoring is needed to make each victim the best offer, and the utility of restorative justice is important, but limited. The author believes that much of the restorative justice literature is aiming at proving the superiority of restorative justice practices above any other type of intervention or service, and he feels that this is partly why restorative justice has not been well received in the Netherlands. A piecemeal implementation of mediation and conferencing in the sphere of criminal justice might be served by being less paradigmatic.