The philosophy of restoration is deeply informed by the peacemaking approach to conflict. This approach values peaceful social life, characterized by respect, solidarity, and active responsibility. These could be called the normative values of RJ City (i.e. the way things ought to be). The Network seeks to reflect those values in the context of crime and other offences by pursuing operational values listed after each normative value:

1. Peaceful social life means more than the absence of open conflict. It includes concepts of harmony, contentment, security, and wellbeing that exist in a community at peace with itself and with its members. Furthermore, when conflict occurs it is addressed in such a way that peaceful social life is restored and strengthened.
1. Resolution: the issues and people surrounding the offence and its aftermath are addressed as completely as possible
2. Protection: the physical and emotional safety of affected parties is a primary consideration in all phases 
2. Respect means regarding all people as worthy of particular consideration, recognition, care and attention simply because they are people.
1. Inclusion: affected parties are invited to directly shape and engage in restorative processes
2. Empowerment: affected parties are given a genuine opportunity to effectively influence and participate in the response to the offence
3. Solidarity means a feeling of agreement, support, and connectedness among members of a group or community. It grows out of shared interests, purposes, sympathies, and responsibilities.
1. Encounter: affected parties are invited, but not compelled[1], to participate in person or indirectly in making decisions that affect them in the response to the offence
2. Assistance: affected parties are helped as needed in becoming contributing members of their communities in the aftermath of the offence
3. Moral education: community standards are reinforced as the values and norms of the parties, their communities, and their societies are considered in determining how to respond to particular offences 
4. Active responsibility means taking responsibility for one’s behaviour. It can be contrasted with passive responsibility, which means being held accountable by others for that behaviour. Active responsibility arises from within a person; passive responsibility is imposed from outside the person.
1. Collaboration: affected parties are invited, but not compelled, to find solutions through mutual, consensual decision-making in the aftermath of the offence
2. Amends: those responsible for the harm resulting from the offence are also responsible for repairing it to the extent possible.