that only the most dissatisfied volunteered for interview. It is also important topoint out that most of the information for this book was gathered before thewidespread implementation of mandatory drug testing, and before the intro-duction of the CARATS initiative (Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice& Throughcare Service). It cannot, therefore, provide any insight into theimpact of these developments on prison regimes or culture.

Malloch herself is clearly sceptical about developing more services for drugusers in prison, on the grounds that more women will be sent to prison in thename of treatment, which will not be adequate for their needs. Nevertheless,this is an interesting scene-setting book that identifies many of the problemswhich CARATS sets out to solve. Future research will have to determinewhether its scepticism is justified.

Jo BorrillPsychiatry Department

Neuroscience & Psychological Medicine Division School of Medicine, Imperial College, Middlesex

Restorative Justice: Ideas, Values, Debates

By Gerry Johnstone . Willan Publishing, Cullompton, Devon, August 2001,190 pp., index. Hardback £40.00, ISBN 1-903240-3. Paperback £16.99, ISBN1-903240-42-5

Advocates of restorative justice see it not as just a new technique for dealingwith offenders but as a fundamental change in the way society responds whenpeople harm each other. That terminology already indicates one aspect of theshift: the fact that people are harmed is stressed, rather than the fact that a lawis broken. Johnstone gives a fair summary of the concept, but only after listingthe issues and dangers.

A major feature is that victims are offered a central role in the process: thisis seen as valuable in itself, because it enables the victim to express feelings andask questions but also involves the victim in deciding the form of reparationthat the offender should make. Johnstone rightly points out that othermeasures can be at least partly restorative, such as victim support and statecompensation for violent crimes but in restorative justice (RJ) theory actualmeetings between victims and offenders are construed as potentially morebeneficial. Johnstone describes these ideas sympathetically but withoutendorsing them, using expressions like ‘according to proponents of restorativejustice’, and he also lists some dangers, such as that victims could be ‘used’ tohelp rehabilitate offenders, and contentious issues, for example whethervictims should be able to recommend punishment rather than reparation ifthey so choose.

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For offenders, as he says, restorative justice uses ‘moralizing social control’rather than punishment; he could have added that cooperation with rehabili-tative measures can itself be a form of reparation, which many victims want.He does not consider punishment in much detail but usefully reviews thepsychological processes of shame, apology and forgiveness, which areprominent in restorative theory. In particular he stresses the distinctionbetween public humiliation and a process that encourages the offender to feelremorse; once he or she expresses this, it can be easier for the victim to takethe first step to forgiveness. He also shows how, in RJ theory, the communitycould play an extensive part in the process, especially in conferencing andcircle sentencing, and could support both victims and offenders. He questions,however, whether community members will rise to this challenge.

Looking to the future, Johnstone depicts various possibilities: a system of RJbased on civil law, replacing criminal justice; parallel systems, allowing victimsand offenders a choice; a parallel but interlinked model; or the piecemeal incor-poration of some restorative practices without a fundamental change in thequasi-military criminal justice philosophy, using it as ‘one more weapon in anincreasingly diversified arsenal to be used in the war against youth crime’ (p. 169, emphasis added), a ‘cheap supplement to repressive justice’ (ibid.).Surprisingly, he says little about how this is already happening in legislation andpractice (reparation, action plan and referral orders) and how the legislationwould need to be altered to promote practices closer to the restorative ideal.

Those who believe in the potential of restorative justice to improve notonly crime-handling but wider aspects of social policy will be disappointed inhis pessimistic conclusion, but will strongly agree with his call (p. 170) for ‘themore rapid development of other lines of critical enquiry, not restricted by ...governmental concerns and interests.’

Martin WrightSchool of Legal Studies

University of Sussex, UK

Ethics and Values in Social Work

By Sarah Banks. Second edn. Palgrave, BASW Practical Social Work Series,Basingstoke, Hants RG 21 6XS, 2001, 217 pp. Paperback £13.99, ISBN 0-333-94798-3

Values and their contextual interactions go back to the beginning of time. AsTimms (1983) noted, the term is complex and has always been problematic whenapplied to social work, with its converging disciplines and ever-evolving ethos.

Social workers spent the final decade of the twentieth century wrestlingwith the purchaser/provider split – a far cry from their voluntary religious/

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