The restorative process, which ultimately must include the potential for the desistance from subsequent criminal activity, becomes predicated upon the relationship between community, victim and offender. Though rarely discussed as complementary criminological concepts, restorative justice and desistance evoke a similar triangulated institutional and cultural relationship, which seeks to address a variety of wrongs resulting from the criminal act. However, it is often assumed that the offender is exclusively responsible for the success of the restorative process, which often overlooks other co-occurring social realities that directly influence the outcome of this encounter.