Making It Right: Building Peace, Settling Conflict

Gr 7 Up—Part examination of contemporary criminal justice and part treatise on the effectiveness of restorative justice, this title aims to humanize all parties involved in a crime, with an emphasis on community building. While restorative justice is not prevalent in the United States, it has gained traction—especially when the alternatives (juvenile detention and prison) are more likely to mar the course of young people's lives. The text explores restorative justice as it is implemented around the world. The concept involves offenders coming face-to-face with the people who were affected by their actions and making reparations through service instead of jail time. Each chapter is prefaced with a short fictional story, based on real-life occurrences, that acts as a launching point for a particular topic (a story about cyberbullying in London opens a discussion on empathy and how students can organize to participate in the resolution of their own conflicts—rather than the school's administration settling them, which often leads to suspension). Peters then goes on to use specific cases to demonstrate human response to crime or criminality throughout history. There is a timely discussion of the unequal rates of incarceration of African Americans, Latinos, and indigenous peoples in comparison to their white counterparts and the differences in sentencing based on racial bias. The information is provided in manageable segments that will appeal to students looking for an enticing but informative read. Bold and colorful illustrations incorporate quotes from the text, drawing attention to big picture ideas and questions.