Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice

Crime victims have many needs, most of which our criminal justice system ignores. In fact, the justice system often increases the injury. Offenders are less ignored by this system, but their real needs—for accountability, for closure, for healing—are also left unaddressed. Such failures are not accidental, but are inherent in the very definitions and assumptions which govern our thinking about crime and justice. Howard Zehr proposes a “restorative” model which is more consistent with experience, with the past, and with the biblical tradition. Based on the needs of victims and offenders, he takes into account recent studies and biblical principles. This is the third edition of Changing Lenses, with a new Afterword by the author.

Available in the CJI Library

Chris: why I pick this book

Zehr’s book remains the seminal work on restorative justice and is a must read for anyone with even a passing interest in matters related to criminal justice. Successfully avoiding the language and pretense of many philosophical treatises on justice, Zehr’s work is accessible,  logical and challenges the reader to think twice about many faulty presuppositions Westerners simply accept as consistent with real justice.