Desert in a Reparative Frame Re-defining Contemporary Criminal Justice

This work re-configures the concept of Desert within criminal punishment philosophy and practice away from its traditional and predominantly retributive orientation and towards a reparative and restorative mode of criminal justice delivery inclusive of all the stakeholders within the justice process. Its pragmatic prescriptions for 'doing justice better' will be of operational interest to a wide range of criminal justice practitioners, academics, legal professionals, policy-makers, students of criminology, and informed members of the media and general public alike. Though written from a mainly British contemporary perspective, this work has resonance for penal reform within many jurisdictions world-wide, both developed and developing, and bearing the burden of excessive penal populations at unacceptable financial and social cost. It focuses upon giving victims of crime due and proper consideration, and many less serious offenders the opportunity to take responsibility and make amends for their wrongdoing as a practical means towards their social restoration. Summarily, it shifts the contemporary justice paradigm away from crime control and towards crime reduction. [Subject: Criminology, Criminal Justice, Penal Reform]