Anti-Oppressive Restorative Justice: Behavior Analysis in Alternatives to Policing

Abstract

The history of American policing, behavior criminalization, and carceral justice is rooted in racist practice dating back to the 1700s. In addition to racially disproportionate punishment doled out by these systems, they are not designed to support behavioral punishment of harm or reinforcement of prosocial behavior for socially significant change. One alternative to this retributive carceral justice system is Restorative Justice. This paper offers a conceptually systematic examination of Restorative Justice for behavior change, an examination of the functional utility of various restorative approaches, alignment of Restorative Justice with behavior analytic ethics, and suggestions for incorporating anti-oppressive practices.