Prof. Ivo Aertsen: using restorative justice for serious crime

Belgium / Adult justice and prisons / Victim support / Academic

Professor Ivo Aertsen is Emeritus Professor of Criminology at the University of Leuven (Belgium). He holds degrees of psychology, law and criminology from the same university. At the Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC) he has been leading the Research Line on ‘Restorative Justice and Victimology’. He was the first chair of the European Forum for Restorative Justice, from 2000-2004, and coordinated various European research projects in the field of restorative justice. He is Editor-in-Chief of ‘The International Journal of Restorative Justice’.

Topic: The history of the RJ movement and the potential of RJ in serious crime

“In this presentation, I will look back at the recent history of restorative justice and will discuss the role of doing restorative justice in serious crime in the development of the movement. In particular, I will focus on the relationship with criminal justice and furthermore will reflect on the causes, consequences and challenges of restorative justice developing away from criminal law.”