Howard Zehr
Encyclopedia
Howard Zehr is Professor of Restorative Justice
at Eastern Mennonite University
's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding
in Harrisonburg, Virginia
. Zehr previously served 19 years as director of Mennonite Central Committee
’s Office on Crime
and Justice
. He is considered a pioneer in the field of restorative justice, a response to criminal justice
that focuses on repairing harm rather than establishing deterrence
.
Zehr is the author of The Little Book of Restorative Justice, Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice and numerous other books. He received his B.A. from Morehouse College
in 1965, M.A., from the University of Chicago
and Ph.D. from Rutgers University
.
Zehr was awarded the 2003 International Prize for Restorative Justice by Prison Fellowship International’s Centre for Justice and Reconciliation. He is the recipient of the 2006 Community of Christ International Peace Award
.
Restorative justice
Restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of victims, offenders, as well as the involved community, instead of satisfying abstract legal principles or punishing the offender...
at Eastern Mennonite University
Eastern Mennonite University
Eastern Mennonite University is a private liberal arts university in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, affiliated with one of the historic peace churches, the Mennonite Church USA. Its main campus is on the edge of the small city of Harrisonburg, Virginia, about three miles from state-owned...
's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding
Center for Justice and Peacebuilding
Center for Justice and Peacebuilding is an accredited graduate-level program founded in 1994; it also offers non-credit training. It specializes in conflict transformation, restorative justice, trauma healing, equitable development, and addressing organizational conflict...
in Harrisonburg, Virginia
Harrisonburg, Virginia
Harrisonburg is an independent city in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia in the United States. Its population as of 2010 is 48,914, and at the 2000 census, 40,468. Harrisonburg is the county seat of Rockingham County and the core city of the Harrisonburg, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical...
. Zehr previously served 19 years as director of Mennonite Central Committee
Mennonite Central Committee
The Mennonite Central Committee is a relief, service, and peace agency representing 15 Mennonite, Brethren in Christ and Amish bodies in North America. The U.S. headquarters are in Akron, Pennsylvania, the Canadian in Winnipeg, Manitoba.-History:...
’s Office on Crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
and Justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
. He is considered a pioneer in the field of restorative justice, a response to criminal justice
Criminal justice
Criminal Justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...
that focuses on repairing harm rather than establishing deterrence
Deterrence (legal)
Deterrence is the use of punishment as a threat to deter people from committing a crime. Deterrence is often contrasted with retributivism, which holds that punishment is a necessary consequence of a crime and should be calculated based on the gravity of the wrong done.- Categories :Deterrence can...
.
Zehr is the author of The Little Book of Restorative Justice, Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice and numerous other books. He received his B.A. from Morehouse College
Morehouse College
Morehouse College is a private, all-male, liberal arts, historically black college located in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with Hampden-Sydney College and Wabash College, Morehouse is one of three remaining traditional men's colleges in the United States....
in 1965, M.A., from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and Ph.D. from Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
.
Zehr was awarded the 2003 International Prize for Restorative Justice by Prison Fellowship International’s Centre for Justice and Reconciliation. He is the recipient of the 2006 Community of Christ International Peace Award
Community of Christ International Peace Award
The Community of Christ International Peace Award was established to honor and bring attention to the work of peacemaking and peacemakers in the world...
.
Works
- Fundamental Concepts of Restorative Justice. Akron, Pennsylvania: Mennonite Central Committee. 1997* Justice: Retribution or Restoration?. Peacework Magazine on the web, April 1999. 1999
- Restorative Justice: When Justice and Healing Go Together. Track Two. 6(3&4) 1997
- "Restorative Justice Signposts: Victim Involvement". OVA Newsletter, Mary Achilles, Victim Advocate, Vol. 4, Issue 1. 2000
- "Family Group Conferences: A Challenge to Victim Offender Mediation?". Victim Offenders Mediation Association Quarterly 7(1):4-8. 1996
- "Justice Paradigm Shift? Values and Visions in the Reform Process." Mediation Quarterly 12(3):207-216. 1995
- Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice.. Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press, 271p. 1990
- "Justice: Stumbling Toward a Restorative Ideal.". In: P. Arthur (ed.), Justice: The Restorative Vision. New Perspectives on Crime and Justice (Issue #7). Akron, PA: Mennonite Central Committee Office of Criminal Justice, pp. 1-15. 1989
- "Retributive Justice, Restorative Justice.". New Perspectives on Crime and Justice (Issue #4). Akron, PA: Mennonite Central Committee Office of Criminal Justice, September, 16p. 1985
- "Mediating the Victim-Offender Conflict.". New Perspectives on Crime and Justice (Issue #2). Akron, PA: Mennonite Central Committee Office of Criminal Justice, September, 30p. 1980
- "Victim Offender Reconciliation: An Incarceration Substitute?". Federal Probation 46(4):63-68. 1982
- Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Serving Life Sentences.. Intercourse, PA: Good Books. 1998
- "Justice that heals: The practice. Paper presented at the Making Crime Pay conference. Wellington, New Zealand, June 1994.". Stimulus 2 (August): 69-74. 1994
- Restorative Family Group Conferences: Differing Models and Guidelines for Practice. Federal Probation. 60(3): 24-29. 1996
- "Restorative justice for crime victims: The promise and the challenge.". In Restorative community justice: Repairing harm and transforming communities, ed. Gordon Bazemore and Mara Schiff, 87-99. With an introduction by Gordon Bazemore and Mara Schiff. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing Co. 2001
- "Restorative Justice: The Concept.". Corrections Today. 59(7):68-70. 1997
- "Ways of knowing for a restorative worldview.". Photocopied draft. 2000
- Restorative justice sign posts.. Conciliation Quarterly 20 (3): 11. 2001
- Journey to Belonging: Flight from shame. Reflections: A Journal of the Conflict Transformation Program 1: 6-9. 2002
- Restoring Justice: Envisioning a Justice Process Focused on Healing - Not Punishment. The Other Side 33(5), Sept - Dec 1997. 1997
- Restorative justice and substance abuse: The path ahead. In Bringing restorative justice to adolescent substance abuse, ed. Kathryn G. Herr. Special issue of Youth & Society 33 (December), 314-328. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 2001
- Fundamental Concepts of Restorative Justice. Contemporary Justice Review. 1: 47-55. Reprinted in Restorative Justice. Declan Roche (2003), ed. Pp. 73-81. The International Library of Essays in Law & Legal Theory, Second Series. Aldershot, Hants, England: Dartmouth/Ashgate. 1998
- Victim offender conferencing in Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system. Harrisonburg, PA: Eastern Mennonite University, Conflict Transformation Program. 1998
- Restorative justice. Corrections Today. 59(7): 68-114 1997
- Journey to belonging. Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Restorative Justice for Juveniles, October (Tübingen, Germany). 2000
- Journey to Belonging. Paper presented at the Just Peace? Peace Making and Peace Building for the New Millennium conference, held in Auckland, New Zealand, 24-28 April. Auckland, New Zealand: Massey University, School of Social and Cultural Studies, Centre for Justice and Peace Development. 2000
- Paradigms of justice- old and new. In Spiritual roots of restorative justice: A collection of faith community perspectives, 37. Ontario, Canada: Ontario Multifaith Council on Spiritual & Religious Care. 2000
- Journey to Belonging. In, Elmar G.M. Weitekamp and Han-Jurgen Kerner, Restorative Justice: Theoretical Foundations. Deon, UK: Willan Publishing. Pp. 21-31. 2002
- The Little Book of Restorative Justice. Intercourse, PA: Good Books. 2002
- Re-Thinking Criminal Justice: Restorative Justice. Re-Thinking Criminal Justice. 1(May): 1-13. 1995
- Restoring justice. In God and the victim: Theological reflections on evil, victimization, justice, and forgiveness, ed. Lisa Barnes Lampman and Michelle D. Shattuck, 131-159. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; and Neighbors Who Care: Washington, D.C. 1999
- Rethinking God, Justice, and Treatment of Offenders. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 35(3/4): 259-285. 2002
- Critical Issues in Restorative Justice: An Inadequate and Overlapping Outline. VOMA Connections 12 (Autumn). Downloaded 22 June 2004. 2002
- Taking Victims and Their Advocates Seriously: A Listening Project. Harrisonburg,VA: Institute for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University.
- Ways of Knowing for a Restorative Worldview. In, Elmar Weitekamp and Hans-Jurgen Kerner, eds. Restorative Justice in Context: International Practice and Directions.Devon, UK and Portland Oregon: Willan Publishing. Pp. 257-271. 2003
- Justice as Restoration, Justice as Respect. Justice Professional. 11: 71-87. 1998
- Mediating the Victim-Offender Conflict. Mennonite Central Committee. Victim Offender Reconciliation Program. 1980
- Critical Issues in Restorative Justice. Monsey, New York and Cullompton, Devon, UK: Criminal Justice Press and Willan Publishing. 2004
- A Restorative Framework for Community Justice Practice. In, Kieran McEvoy and Tim NewburnTim NewburnWilliam Henry Timothy Newburn is an academic, specialising in criminology and policing. He was president of the British Society of Criminology from 2005-2008, director of the Mannheim Centre for Criminology from 2003-2008 and is currently head of the Department of Social Policy at the London...
,eds., Criminology, Conflict Resolution and Restorative Justice. Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK and New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan. Pp. 135-152. 2003 - A call for thoughtful response: Conflict Transformation staff thoughts on trauma and healing. Harrisonburg, VA: Eastern Mennonite University, Conflict Transformation Program. 2001
- Listening to Victims—A Critique of Restorative Justice Policy and Practice in the United States. Federal Probation. 68(1): 32-38. 2004
- Family group conferences: A challenge to victim offender mediation?. Accord, a publication of Canadian Mennonite Central Committee. 1996
- Transcending: Reflections of Crime Victims. Intercourse, PA: Good Books. 2001
- The Meaning of Life: Working at the Healing Edge. Offender Program Report. 11:71-87. 1998
- Justice Alternative: A Restorative Approach. The Corrections Psychologist. 30(1). 1998
- Justice Alternatives: A Restorative Perspective. Imbizo. February. 1996
- Restitution Reduces Recidivism. Crime and Justice Network Newsletter. Oct 1990 - Mar 1991. p7. Downloaded 20 January 2005. 1990
- Evaluation and Restorative Justice Principles.. In Elizabeth Elliott and Robert M. Gordon, eds., New Directions in Restorative Justice: Issues, Practice, Evaluation. Cullompton, UK: Willan Publishing. Pp. 296-303. 2005
- The little book of family group conferences: New Zealand style.. Intercourse, PA: Good Books. 2004
- Restaurando relaciones: Una manera distanta de hacer justicia. San Salvador, El Salvador: Asociación Bienestar Yek Ineme 2001
- The ideas of engagement and empowerment. in, Gerry Johnstone and Daniel W. Van Ness, eds., Handbook of Restorative Justice. Cullompton, Devon: Willan Publishing. pp. 41-58 2007
- Avaliação e princípios da justiça restaurativa.. en, Catherin Slakmon, Maíra Rocha Machado and Pierpaolo Cruz Bottini (eds.), Novas Direções na Governança da Justiça e da Segurança (Brasília- D.F.: Ministry of Justice of Brazil, United Nations Development Programme – Brazil, and the School of Law of the Getulio Vargas Foundation - São Paulo). pp. 411- 417. 2006
- Maneiras de conhecer para uma visão restaurativa de mundo.. en, Catherin Slakmon, Maíra Rocha Machado and Pierpaolo Cruz Bottini (eds.), Novas Direções na Governança da Justiça e da Segurança (Brasília- D.F.: Ministry of Justice of Brazil, United Nations Development Programme – Brazil, and the School of Law of the Getulio Vargas Foundation - São Paulo). pp. 419-432. 2006
- El pequeño libro de la justicia restaurativa.. Intercourse, PA: Good Books. 2007
- Why Can't We Just Apologize?. The Crime Victims Report. 11(3):38. 2007
External links
- Restorative Justice Blog at Eastern Mennonite University
- Professional Page at Eastern Mennonite University
- Article on Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr
- Class Notes: Howard Zehr '65 Wins Prestigious Award