This article asserts that restorative justice dialogue is a “wager,” that acknowledges the limits of reason and experience while also embracing openness to change for future experiences. The article's discussion is broken into three parts: (1) the definition of restorative justice in a criminal context and beyond, (2) restorative dialogue in peacemaking circles, and (3) progress toward a relational theory of restorative justice.
The author of the article suggests that restorative justice offers an important contribution to traditional forms of conflict resolution and describes the deep commitments associated with the restorative justice wager. He argues that the practice of talking circles best embodies the restorative justice wager and that the principle of internal relations can help guide restorative justice into a more comprehensive relational theory of conflict resolution.