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The Little Book of Restorative Justice for Colleges and Universities
A Practitioner's Reference and Guide to Implement Restorative Justice on Campus
Here’s a call to colleges and universities to consider implementing restorative practices on their campuses, ensuring fair treatment of students and staff while minimizing institutional liability, protecting the campus community, and boosting morale, from an associate dean of student affairs who has put these models to work on his campus.
Restorative justice is a collaborative decision-making process that includes victims, offenders, and others who are seeking to hold offenders accountable by having them (a) accept and acknowledge responsibility for their offenses, (b) to the best of their ability, repair the harm they caused to victims and communities, and (c) work to reduce the risk of re-offense by building positive social ties to the community.
David Karp writes in his introduction, “As a student affairs administrator, I have become deeply committed to the concept and practice of restorative justice. I have experienced how it can work given the very real pressures among campus conduct administrators to manage high case loads, ensure fair treatment, minimize institutional liability, protect the campus community, boost morale in a division with high turnover, and help students learn from their mistakes without creating insurmountable obstacles to their future successes.”
Here’s a call to colleges and universities to consider implementing restorative practices on their campuses, ensuring fair treatment of students and staff while minimizing institutional liability, protecting the campus community, and boosting morale, from an associate dean of student affairs who has put these models to work on his campus.
Restorative justice is a collaborative decision-making process that includes victims, offenders, and others who are seeking to hold offenders accountable by having them (a) accept and acknowledge responsibility for their offenses, (b) to the best of their ability, repair the harm they caused to victims and communities, and (c) work to reduce the risk of re-offense by building positive social ties to the community.
David Karp writes in his introduction, “As a student affairs administrator, I have become deeply committed to the concept and practice of restorative justice. I have experienced how it can work given the very real pressures among campus conduct administrators to manage high case loads, ensure fair treatment, minimize institutional liability, protect the campus community, boost morale in a division with high turnover, and help students learn from their mistakes without creating insurmountable obstacles to their future successes.”
112 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2013
21 people are currently reading
183 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
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June 12, 2020Okay read this for work!
August 25, 2015
The book was fairly straightforward and filled with several nice stories to frame up the situation and diverse nature of handling RJ in a college or university setting. Like all of the Little Book series works, it's nothing more than an introductory guide...which I happen to feel is something too many authors and publishers neglect now days. Still, a person reading it should not think they could start a college/university-based RJ program just using this book as the sole guide.
I would have given the book five stars had it not been for a fundamental flaw which almost made me throw down the book and not read any more. In Restorative Justice, there is this segment which uses pseudo-Native American elements to promote an idea. They often throw around the term "Native American" but never tell the tribe(s), areas of the country (i.e., Plains Tribes vs Southeastern Woodlands Tribes), or any other identifiers to give credibility. So, as a Native American, I get offended by this since a great deal is either fabricated or so broadly painted that it wrongly depicts Native American life an beliefs.
In this book, I found the same thing happening a bit with a "medicine wheel." Dr. Karp came up with a very valid line of thought and then he shrouded it with the New Age "crystal Twinkie" nonsense of a medicine wheel to give the illusion of spirituality and mindfulness. It was a good line of thought! Why taint a good idea by cloaking it in New Age nonsense which actually works to belittle a minority group's identity?
Now, I have been fortunate enough to meet Dr. Karp. He seems like a great guy. I love his writing style and think he has done much to help a lot of people while also furthering the RJ cause. I just think he needs to let his good ideas stand on their own. They have far greater merit to them than what he is allowing them to get credit for.
All-in-all, it is a sound book full of great stories, ideas, and a plain-languaged approach to how a college/university RJ program may play out. For those who haven't a clue how to get started or where to go with such a program, this book is a great introductory piece. Affordable and easy to read, it could be used as a training text.
I would have given the book five stars had it not been for a fundamental flaw which almost made me throw down the book and not read any more. In Restorative Justice, there is this segment which uses pseudo-Native American elements to promote an idea. They often throw around the term "Native American" but never tell the tribe(s), areas of the country (i.e., Plains Tribes vs Southeastern Woodlands Tribes), or any other identifiers to give credibility. So, as a Native American, I get offended by this since a great deal is either fabricated or so broadly painted that it wrongly depicts Native American life an beliefs.
In this book, I found the same thing happening a bit with a "medicine wheel." Dr. Karp came up with a very valid line of thought and then he shrouded it with the New Age "crystal Twinkie" nonsense of a medicine wheel to give the illusion of spirituality and mindfulness. It was a good line of thought! Why taint a good idea by cloaking it in New Age nonsense which actually works to belittle a minority group's identity?
Now, I have been fortunate enough to meet Dr. Karp. He seems like a great guy. I love his writing style and think he has done much to help a lot of people while also furthering the RJ cause. I just think he needs to let his good ideas stand on their own. They have far greater merit to them than what he is allowing them to get credit for.
All-in-all, it is a sound book full of great stories, ideas, and a plain-languaged approach to how a college/university RJ program may play out. For those who haven't a clue how to get started or where to go with such a program, this book is a great introductory piece. Affordable and easy to read, it could be used as a training text.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2019
A useful practitioner-focused introduction to implementing restorative justice in conduct/student affairs work.
There were several times in the book where the author alluded to restorative justice being informed by Native American/Indigenous practices without identifying those practices or the nations/people who developed them. I was bothered by the inclusion of a pseudo-Native American "medicine wheel" as a model for restorative justice work. Another reviewer, Ken Johnson, speaks about why this is problematic here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
There were several times in the book where the author alluded to restorative justice being informed by Native American/Indigenous practices without identifying those practices or the nations/people who developed them. I was bothered by the inclusion of a pseudo-Native American "medicine wheel" as a model for restorative justice work. Another reviewer, Ken Johnson, speaks about why this is problematic here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
September 22, 2019
Highly practical overview of Restorative Justice philosophy, for use in student life situations by higher education professionals.
July 5, 2020
A fine primer for beginners.
October 9, 2020
An excellent overview of restorative justice principles and practices to be applied in a university setting.
September 8, 2023
Great introduction to Restorative Justice in the college/university sphere, would recommend for individuals looking to implement RJ on their campus
January 7, 2025
Super useful! I work at a community college with no residential living so I would have loved more scenarios specific to our student demographic, but plenty of applicable advice.
October 13, 2025
Nice and easy read about restorative justice on campuses and how it benefits all parties. A good read for alternative dispute practitioners.
October 12, 2021
An interesting intro to restorative justice for colleges
July 2, 2013
This is a great addition to the Little Books series. Karp distilled the most important concepts to understanding the potential for restorative practices on a college campus. Great examples and practical tools like a script for pre-conferencing and conferences make this a book that will be picked up again and again.
February 26, 2015
Being new to the restorative justice concepts this books was a great way to reflect how RJ can be used and implemented on any given campus. It's short and simplistic approach makes this a quick and easy read for anyone interested in the topic. If your learning about the RJ principles, I highly recommend this book.
February 8, 2020
A good primer on restorative justice practices for a college environment. Provides access not just to the benefit of implementation of RJ, but provides practical steps to move from thought to implementation.
March 15, 2016
Read for the new job. Short and succinct, good intro to restorative justice practices in Higher Ed.
November 21, 2022
8.5/10.
April 25, 2017
Eh. I asked a friend to lend me a book about restorative justice, and he lent me this one. I don't know that I blame the book, persay, but it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. I wanted something with more depth, while this (as one would expect from a book called "Little Book of Restorative Justice") was a very brief overview that touched on some of the things I was wondering but didn't delve into any of them. It is what it is, and it's fine for what it is, but what it is isn't what I was hoping for.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews