It has been a long time since I wrote anything here. Life became chaotic just shortly after I opened this blog and it was impossible to maintain a regular routine of writing. And yet, here I am, writing again and nothing could feel more right and natural than to share these journal-like thoughts about topics which interest me. My impetus, I confess, is that I have assigned a blog to my students in a crimes against humanity course that I am teaching this coming quarter. After a very interesting presentation last week on collaboration online, and after thinking all this past year about both invitations to virtual dialogue and criminal justice blogging I suppose it is natural that I would end up back here wondering what I might write about.

What are the purposes of writing a blog? What do I intend to achieve in this space? First, I rather lack confidence that my invitation to dialogue will be taken up, therefore I definitely want the writing to achieve something for me: clarity of thought, recording of impressions that otherwise would be lost, wrestling with an idea, building theory. Then, should dialogue ensue, I would like to share in building conversation and deepening my knowledge about the subjects I write about as others engage.

It is inevitable that my interests would shift from time to time. I see that I had already created a category for restorative justice. I think I’ll create another one for crimes against humanity and transitional justice which I am looking forward to exploring this quarter. What does this have to do with deathwatching? Well I believe we cling to the death penalty because we do not know what else to do about the truly outraging, ghastly things people can do to one another. So, given that I would like to think we could give up that particular coping mechanism, it is obvious that I would want to explore the strategies that people use to cope with the most egregious wrongs without killing back. So, yes. I will use this place to reflect on the work that I am doing on restorative justice both local and international and hope that people will join me to think about alternatives.