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Compassionate Justice: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue with Two Gospel Parables on Law, Crime, and Restorative Justice is unavailable, but you can change that!

Two parables that have become firmly lodged in popular consciousness and affection are the parable of the Good Samaritan and the parable of the Prodigal Son. These simple but subversive tales have historically had a significant impact on shaping the spiritual, aesthetic, moral, and legal traditions of Western civilization, and their capacity to inform debate on a wide range of moral and social...

First, inasmuch as the story recounts an innocent man’s mistreatment at the hands of violent assailants, it offers a window into the bitter experience of criminal victimization. This is the most obvious connection with the theme of criminal justice, though it is rarely spelled out in any real detail, even in essays specifically on victimology.20 Admittedly, nothing is said in the account about the man’s subjective responses to his assault or its aftermath, and in many respects
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