8. Restorative Justice

This chapter investigates a series of interventions that fall under the banner of restorative justice procedures. These procedures offer an informal alternative to formal court processes and typically involve bringing the offender and the victim together to discuss the harm caused, as well as measures to remediate the harm and assist the offender to avoid future offending. Restorative justice is influenced by re-integrative shaming theory, which argues that holding offenders accountable for their crimes in a socially re-integrative way can facilitate reconciliation and healing. We review the research literature, finding that the evidence for restorative justice interventions in reducing recidivism for traditional crimes is mixed and, overall, weak. To date, there are no studies that have empirically assessed the use of restorative justice practices in relation to cybercrimes of any kind, though some scholars have speculated as to their potential applicability. We outline the difficulties of applying restorative justice interventions to the online context and formulate a proposal for best-practice restorative justice procedures for cybercrime.