Restorative justice has the potential to significantly influence criminal justicepolicy, but only if understood as a policy alternative and not merely as a program. This means adopting a definition that lends itself to use in guiding public policy and to measuring the relative "restorativeness" of that policy as well as of practices or program. There are compelling reasons to adopt restorative justice as criminal justice policy, and lessons can be learned from the experiences of three countries that have, to varying degrees, adopted a restorative criminal justice policy. While legislation can entrench restorative justice, there are important reasons not to begin with legislation. The paper concludes with suggestions for countries considering use of restorative justice.