Yoga and restorative justice in prison: An experience of “response‐ability to harms”

Divisions within the contemporary restorative justice movement in the US often manifest in one state‐supported model: balanced and restorative justice (BARJ). Paul McCold, in this symposium frames the problem with BARJ as one of a corruption of restorative justice principles by its foundation in community justice. This article suggests that BARJ and McCold’s critique share a neglect of the transformative potential of restorative justice for realizing social and economic justice. Moreover, recent experience indicates that BARJ policy planning can take place in a way supportive of Social Equity Restorative Justice (SERJ). The time appears opportune for some peacemaking within the movement.     

The endorsement of cognitive distortions: comparing child pornography offenders and contact sex offenders

This study examined the endorsement of cognitive distortions in child pornography offenders (CPOs), using an established assessment tool, the Abel and Becker Cognition Scale. The scale was expanded to include cognitions specific to child pornography offending, extracted from Howitt and Sheldon's Children and Sexual Activities Inventory (C&SA). Three samples of CPOs, child sex offenders and offenders with both offence types responded to the cognition items. An exploratory Principal Component Analysis suggested six main components of the scale. CPOs were significantly less likely to endorse these statements in general, and this was more pronounced on items that project blame onto the child or other people, describe a need for power and consider children as sexually active. The statements extracted from C&SA did not differentiate between the groups. These findings are discussed under consideration of the relationship between cognitive distortions and contact sex offending, and in reference to the general criticism concerning the definition and appropriate measurement of cognitive distortions.     

Retributivism and Over-Punishment

Law and Philosophy - Lately it has become a commonplace to complain about the injustice of mass incarceration. I share the sentiment that this phenomenon has been an injustice. But it also has...