Aug 2025
From Retributive to Restorative: An Alternative Approach to Justice in Schools
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This paper evaluates the impact of Chicago Public Schools’ adoption of restorative practices on student behavior, finding decreased suspensions and arrests, particularly for Black students.
School districts historically approached conflict resolution from the perspective that suspending disruptive students was necessary to protect their classmates, even if this caused harm to perceived offenders. Restorative practices (RP) – focused on reparation, accountability, and shared ownership of disciplinary justice – are designed to address undesirable behavior without harming students. We study Chicago Public Schools’ adoption of RP and find that suspensions and arrests decreased, driven by effects for Black students. We find null effects on test-score value-added, ruling out meaningful average declines. We estimate a 15% decrease in out-of-school arrests, consistent with RP substantively changing student behavior.
Topics
Projects
From Retributive to Restorative: An Alternative Approach to Justice in Schools
This research brief details the findings from the Education Lab’s study of the effect of restorative practices in Chicago Public Schools.
From Retributive to Restorative: An Alternative Approach to Justice in Schools
This paper evaluates the impact of Chicago Public Schools’ adoption of restorative practices on student discipline, finding decreased suspensions and arrests, particularly for Black students.
NBER working paper – From Retributive to Restorative: An Alternative Approach to Justice
This paper evaluates the effect of restorative practices implemented in Chicago high schools, finding decreases and student arrests in and outside of school and for violent and non-violent offenses.
Becker Friedman Institute Working Paper- From Retributive to Restorative: An Alternative Approach to Justice
Read the working paper on the results of the Education Lab’s findings from a study of the implementation of restorative practices in Chicago Public Schools.
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