Restorative justice emerges and develops primarily in the West in the 1980s, and has become an influential criminal justice reform movement, and a standard practice. However, as an academic project, scholarly research on restorative justice has not maintained an increasing trend in recent years. Western research appears to face two major challenges. First, there is a generally insufficient knowledge about restorative justice in non-Western countries such as China, where tradition, culture, political economic system, and legal system are very different. Reports suggested that restorative justice in China has been flourishing; millings cases have been resolved by restorative justice process. But some researchers have suggested major restorative justice principles often are taken lightly in China. The observation and explanations for these differences have not been systematically well established.

The second challenge is the theoretical challenge. Restorative justice can largely be recognized as a practice. Some central set of concepts, methodology and the process have been developed; standard evaluative criteria and methods have been formed in the West. However, beyond these basic concepts and methodology, there has not much development on further theorizing. There have not been an enlightening understanding and causal explanation of restorative justice processes including questions about different practices in the West and China. What are the types or dimensions of factors influencing the variation of practice? Its success or failure of the process? Features in laws? Cross cultural contexts? for example. Little effort has been made to explore a unified understanding of aspects of restorative justice. Through examining and comparing with China’s restorative justice, including culture and institutional features, its laws, and its practice features, this research draws insights from China to explores a possibility of developing a unified framework for understanding restorative justice in both West and China.

Jianhong Liu is a Distinguished Professor at Faculty of Law, Macau University of Science and Technology. He has authored and co-authored 226 academic publications, including 31 books and more than 100 SSCI or Scopus articles, as well as more than 50 book chapters. He has won many awards, including 2025 ‘Sellin & Glueck Award’ of the American Society of Criminology, 2016 ‘Freda Adler Distinguished Scholar Award’ from the International Division of the American Society of Criminology, and 2018 ‘G. O.W. Mueller Award for Distinguished Scholar’ of the International Section of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. His co-authored book has won several awards too. Professor Liu has served in numerous leadership roles in international academic organizations. He was the Elected Founding President and Honorary President of the Asian Criminological Society (2009–2015); he has been the Elected President of the Scientific Commission of the International Society for Criminology (since 2014), the Elected Chairman of the General Assembly of the Asian Criminological Society (since 2016), etc. Prof. Liu is the Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Journal of Criminology (SSCI Q2). He has been invited to give more than 80 keynote and plenary speeches and seminars internationally including at European Society of Criminology, International Society of Criminology, Asian Criminological Society, and Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.