This comprehensive collection of original articles by renowned international scholars, surveys the entire landscape of restorative justice from its origins, philosophical and spiritual foundations, to ways in which restorative justice principles can be structured into social institutions to effect social change. Throughout the book authors present various methods and formats for achieving apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation in the lives of persons, groups, and nations affected by harms. The leading practices and programs of restorative justice are discussed ranging from victim-offender mediation in response to state-defined crimes, to truth and reconciliation commissions in response to intra-state and multiple state crimes. Responses to genocide and gross human rights violations in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia are given special attention, and the book examines the possibilities that restorative justice thinking and highly accountable restorative justice practices hold for structural changes in how we organize everyday life - in families, schools, and places of work. "The Handbook of Restorative Justice" is a "vade mecum" that all students and scholars of restorative justice will want to have at their sides.