Retribution, Restoration, and White-Collar Crime

A "restorative" approach to criminality and conflict has been proposed in a number of common law jurisdictions in a variety of legal contexts, both civil and criminal, with an interesting exception: white-collar crime, which is discussedin an almost exclusively retributive vocabulary. This paper explores what a specifically restorative response to white-collar crime might look like, a response which above all else would seek to heal the harm the crime has done. In particular,the author looks at the possibilities for voluntary participation of victims and offenders; broad stakeholder inclusion and a focus on future relations rather than past offences-all necessaryparts of a restorative encounter The author concludes that white-collar crime, by its nature, lends itselfpoorly to restoration. Corporate crime, howeverthat in which the corporation rather than the individual can be identified as an offender -presents a much better fit.