Dr John Topping, Dr Allely Albert and Dr Richard Martin

 

Institute Fellows Dr John Topping (Politics of Security and Institutional Peacebuilding), Dr Allely Albert (Legacy), and Dr Richard Martin (London School of Economics and Political Science), recently published an article in Policing and Society, 1–16, 2025, examining the contribution of community-based restorative justice (CBRJ) in Northern Ireland.

Focused on their shared interest in Community Restorative Justice Ireland (CRJI), a key restorative justice organisation which operates mainly within Republican and Nationalist communities of Northern Ireland, the paper explores the attention and criticism the organisation has attracted in equal measure over the past twenty-five years.

The paper revisits critiques originally considered by McEvoy and Mika in 2002, examining the ‘impossibility’ of CRJI and restorative justice within Northern Ireland more broadly.  The authors contend that the values and principles of CBRJ have in fact transcended the highly contested and politicised security environment of the post-conflict context, propelling informal understandings of security.  The article concludes that the organisation has not merely been ‘possible’, but has acted as a fulcrum for transforming community capital, re-imagining justice ownership, and moving society away from the cultures of violence long associated with Northern Ireland’s past.

Read the article here.