Includes bibliographical references and index.

Sentencing law and practice in Canada -- Historical overview of Aboriginal perspectives on justice -- Opportunities of community and victim participation and sentencing discretion in conventional sentencing -- Sentencing circle -- Elders' or community sentencing panel -- Sentence advisory committee -- Community mediation committee -- Development and impact of community sentencing and mediation initiatives -- Post-colonialism, legal pluralism, and popular justice -- Justice and policy issues raised by community sentencing and mediation.

Ross Green looks at the evolution of the Canadian criminal justice system, and contrasts the values on which it is based with Aboriginal concepts of justice. Against this backdrop, he introduces sentencing circles, elder and community sentencing panels, sentence advisory committees, and community mediation projects. At the heart of the book are case studies of several communities, which Green uses to analyze the successes of and challenges to the innovative sentencing approaches now evolving in Aboriginal communities.