De la justiţie restaurativă la practici restaurative: aplicabilitate în sfera asistenţei sociale [From Restorative Justice to Restorative Practices: Applicability in the Field of Social Work]

The restorative field developed rapidly in the past decades, first as practice, afterwards as theory. More and more we are witnessing restorative practices which are crossing the boundaries of the criminal justice system and are implemented in other fields – process identified as systemic permeability. One of these fields is social work, with which restorative practices have common values and principles. In Romania, the restorative field is emerging, the fist experiments being undertaken in 2002. Nowadays, mediation is implemented in different criminal and civil cases, and four types of measures are implemented to increase the victim’s visibility and protection during the criminal justice process. In the Romanian social work arena, incipient restorative practices are developing, but clear procedures are not yet developed. The article aims to clarify several aspects of the restorative field – conceptual framework, origins, values and guiding principles and models of practice – as there seems to be a lack of popularity and knowledge among the Romanian social work professionals. Also, the main restorative practices implemented in Romania are presented and a discussion on the applicability of these practices in the social work field is made.

Keywords: restorative practices, restorative justice, social work, systemic permeability