Description
Book SynopsisOften touted as the humane and politically progressive alternative to the rigid philosophy of retributive punishment that underpins many of the world's judicial systems, restorative justice aspires to a theoretical and practical reconciliation of the values of love and compassion with justice and accountability. Emotionally seductive, the rhetoric of restorative justice appeals to a desire for a right relation amongst individuals and communities, and offers us a vision of justice that allows for the mutual healing of victim and victimizer, and with it, a sense of communal repair.
In Compulsory Compassion, Annalise Acorn, a one-time advocate for restorative justice, deconstructs the rhetoric of the restorative movement. Drawing from diverse legal, literary, philosophical, and autobiographical sources, she questions the fundamental assumptions behind that rhetoric: that we can trust wrongdoers' capacity for meaningful accountability and respectful community, and that we
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
1 The Seductive Vision of Restorative Justice: Right-Relation, Reciprocity, Healing, and Repair
2 “Essentially and Only a Matter of Love”: Justice and the Teachability of Universal Love
3 Three Precarious Pillars of Restorative Optimism
4 Sentimental Justice: The Unearned Emotions of Restorative Catharsis
5 “Lovemaking Is Justice-Making”: The Idealization of Eros and the Eroticization of Justice
6 Compulsory Compassion: Justice, Fellow-Feeling and the Restorative Encounter
7 Epilogue. Restorative Utopias: “The Fire with Which We Must Play”?
Notes
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