Week 1: Introducing the unit

This is the first post on the unit blog for Victims and Restorative Justice; thanks for checking it out.

I'll be using this blog to post feedback on our seminar discussions and any other ideas, thoughts and comments relating to each week's teaching.

There were some interesting discussions in the first week's seminars. Pulling together the comments from different groups, it seems as if people are definitely interested in

• how victims are treated within the criminal justice system
• restorative justice, in particular how RJ works in practice
• whole-class discussions, including two-sided debates

and that you're not particularly bothered about

• theoretical victimology (or any other kind of 'pure' theory)
• compensation
• role-playing - or anything that involves standing up and moving around

I'll try and take all of this on board as we go on

Other than that, all I want to say in this first week is

• do read; the more you read for this unit the more you'll get out of it
• do read "The Ideal Victim" in particular; it's an easy read but there's a lot in there
• do start thinking about real-life examples of victims of crime, for the first essay; and
• don't panic!

You can leave comments on this blog, although anything that's intended for me personally is probably better done by email.

See you on Monday!