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Restorative Justice (XIU-FU-SHI-SI-FA) in Taiwan: Traditional Practices and Modern Developments

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Abstract 

“Restorative Justice,” firstly a research concept and later a criminal justice practice, was introduced into Taiwan at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This paper reviews how RJ grounded in the Taiwanese district prosecutors’ offices and gradually grows into a grassroots social movement. We propose that the RJ advancement benefits from open-minded policymakers, dedicated academics, and innovative facilitators. The facilitators trained from 2011 to 2012 became key players to spread the RJ practices to other criminal justice sectors and beyond. In addition, the third wave of judicial reform further enabled the embedding of the RJ procedure in the Juvenile Justice Act, the Code of Criminal Justice Procedure, the Prison Act, and the Detention Act. We compare the discourse of RJ advocacy in the east and the west and address the importance of cultural sensitivity, terminology translation, and the meaning of localized practice. In conclusion, we reflect on the existing evaluation reports of the Taiwanese RJ model and provide recommendations for future development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Criminology, National Taipei University, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Lanying Huang

  2. Department of Criminal Justice, Ming Chuan University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan

    Chuen-Jim Sheu, Yi-Fen Lu & Yi-Chun Yu

  3. School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Mark S. Umbreit

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  1. Lanying Huang
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  2. Chuen-Jim Sheu
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  5. Mark S. Umbreit
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Correspondence to Lanying Huang.

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Huang, L., Sheu, CJ., Lu, YF. et al. Restorative Justice (XIU-FU-SHI-SI-FA) in Taiwan: Traditional Practices and Modern Developments. Asian J Criminol 18, 189–208 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-022-09377-4

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