First Sentence

"This book conceives of restorative justice as a major development in human thought grounded in traditions of justice from the ancient Arab, Greek, and Roman civilization that accepted a restorative approach even to homicide (Van Ness 1986, pp. 64-68); the restorative approach of the public assemblies (moots) of the Germanic peoples who swept across Europe after the fall of Rome (Berman 1983, pp. 53-56); Indian Hindus as ancient as the Vedic civilization (6000-2000 B.C.; Beck 1997, p. 77) for whom "he who atones is forgiven" (Weitekamp 1989); and ancient Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian traditions that one sees blended with Western influences today in North Asia (Haley 1996)."