Understanding the Anti-Carceral Possibility of School-Based Restorative Justice: A Methodologically Inclusive Systematic Review

Abstract

Restorative justice (RJ), a growing philosophical movement that has been adapted to American schools in recent decades, takes a radically egalitarian view of humans and their relationships, yet it has become entwined in reproductionist discourses and practices, specifically those around school discipline, carceral logics, and social control. Often attributed to diverse Indigenous communities, RJ is a philosophical approach to community-building that casts wrongdoing as relational harm rather than institutional rule violation. It is implemented in schools through a spectrum of restorative practices. While over 60% of schools use some form of restorative practices, often these practices are integrated along with racialized social control and carceral discipline. This methodologically diverse systematic review looks beyond evidence of effectiveness to examine how scholarly studies put restorative justice in conversation with the racialized carceral practices and logics of U.S. schooling. Additionally, this study reviews the operationalization of RJ within these studies (n = 61) to work toward a shared definition of anti-carceral school-based restorative justice. We found that most studies treated restorative justice as an antidote to excessive racialized social control while a small subset discussed its complicity, problematizing the idea or implementation of it. To maximize the anti-carceral potential of school-based RJ, our review suggests that whole-school change is the best approach, with a particular emphasis on the role of school leadership, proper training of school personnel, and student voice.