Restorative Justice In Criminal Justice

The Restorative justice processes provide an opportunity for forgiveness and reconciliation to materialize, if the victims are willing to, and generally, it is not surprising for this to occur with greater or lesser intensity. Forgiveness itself includes individual transformation of the victims that can free the pain of the past thereby healing the wounds caused by the crime. The decision to forgive has multifaceted explanations. Often, the victims themselves find it difficult to identify clearly the reason or reasons that led them to forgive and also it is common that there is more than one cause. Restorative justice seeks to uphold the humanization of the consequences of crime, encouraging the postulation of accountability on the part of

The practice is also called Victim-Offender Reconciliation because the mediation helps them to create a mutually agreeable plan to repair any damages that occurred as a result of the crime. The major benefit of this process is that it humanizes the “criminal justice process” as when the offenders are brought in front of the victims, the harm caused by them becomes evident in front of them, leaving no scope to justify or rationalize their heinous act. Furthermore, it is expected that this individual interaction will instill in the offender a sense of compassion for the victim, hence making it more difficult for the offender to replicate his wrong-doings in the future.
• Family Group Conferencing (FGC): In this process, along with the primary victim and offender, the victim’s kin, the offender’s family members, and others connected to the offender or victim may also participate in this kind of dialogue session. FGC is often the most apposite method for juvenile cases, due to the significant role of family in any juvenile offenders’ life. Apart from this, FGC plays an important role in planning the prospective care for the victim and also in restoring their normal daily