As wrongdoing will continue to occur in society, the manner in which wrongdoers are dealt with will be debated alongside it. Hence, it is vital to have a justice process that can adequately deal with wrongdoers in a manner that incarceration has not, and in recent times, such an ideology of justice has emerged; restorative justice. This journal will divulge into restorative justice, and to do this, I shall; describe restorative, compare and contrast different types of concepts of justice, exemplify critiques, and benefits of restorative justice, and discuss the future of restorative justice. In the end, restorative justice will be clearly depicted as a tremendous process that has been far too long ignored by conventional justice practices, and in the future should be utilized more, as it has great potential to aid numerous individuals who make mistakes.
To begin with, restorative justice is an attempt to address the several flaws that the criminal justice system possesses in terms of not adequately meeting the needs of each stakeholder: the harmer, the harmed, and the community (Zehr, 2015, pg. 5-6). But what is restorative justice? One of the concerns with restorative justice is that it lacks a clear definition, instead possessing a variety definitions provided by numerous people (Abramson, 2018, Lecture on Defining Restorative Justice). While this can be seen as a limitation of restorative justice, I believe it to be otherwise, as having numerous definitions implies that
110). According to the author, the aim of restorative justice is to heal communities from an incident where people were harmed and, ideally, help prevent the same thing from happening again. I believe that, there is going to be a higher possibility of crime reduction in schools and in different neighborhood if victims and offenders mediate a restitution agreement to the satisfaction of each other. In conjunction to this, if the government can be more committed in supporting these approaches, I believe that there will be a massive drop in crime
This injustice damages the rehabilitative intent that prisons were meant
Being a voluntary process, restorative justice requires the offender to take responsibility for their actions, truly understand their impact, and begin a journey of healing (Eggleton & Saint-Germain, 2018). Many Indigenous offenders are the product of their circumstances and feel helpless against the systemic hurdles they must overcome within society (Editorial Board, 2022). Restorative justice takes a less traditional approach compared to the oppressive justice system of today, enabling the Indigenous offender to be treated as a human being, and not just another statistic (Eggleton & Saint-Germain,
This healing process allows the offender to repair the already completed harm. This includes meeting victims’ needs and placing emphasis on the offenders' ability to contribute to those reconstruction processes. Furthermore, we see how restorative justice empowers victims as they search for closure, the ability to portray admiration by the influence of human impact through their behavioral growth, and the stimulated restitution to the victims and communities. A perfect example of this would be the film when watched in class about the Canadian coffee shop that had been robbed and the offender came back to put on an amazing dinner for the community. The goals were to raise money for the coffee shop by repaying for the losses, individual growth, and restoring trust within the community.
Restorative Justice past practices and activities that are popular within the Restorative justice movement are Prisoner rights and alternatives to prisons, which is a program to change prison condition and minimize incarceration sentencing, Conflict Resolution is a program that creates neighborhood justice centers available to the community. The Victim offender Reconciliation program (VORPs) is a meeting between the victim and the community, Victim-Offender Mediation (VOMS) is mediation between the victim and the offender, Victim Advocacy is the victim rights group which focused on the efforts for restitution for the crime. The family group conferences (FGCs) allow the victim and family and the offenders to meet. The Sentencing Circle includes
This type of justice system is designed very differently when compared with the retributive justice system. The restorative justice system endeavours to bring the victim and the offender together and allow them to speak with each other in the hopes to support the healing process. It will enable the victims to express themselves to the offender and lets the offender apologize and express their feelings to the victim. The restorative justice system often offers the victims of crime closure. The system encourages both parties to reveal themselves to each other and develop a solution for the future to satisfy both parties involved.
Traditionally, crime has been viewed as a violation against the state. Still too little attention is given to the fact that criminal acts are also violations of the victims and the communities. Punishing and correcting offenders’ criminal behaviors should not only be conducted using the concepts of retribution, incapacitation, and deterrence, it should also be designed to repair the damages done to the victims and the communities. Many benefits are associated with shifting to the restorative justice model, for the victim, the offender, and the community. Restorative justice benefits the victims by giving them a voice regarding the accountability of the offender.
The support for restorative justice stems from a strong commitment to social justice and the notion that the US judicial system must fundamentally change its approach to encourage healing and repair injustice. Focusing on mass imprisonment and punishment helps cause the pain and trouble that people involved in America’s justice system face every day due to the ignorant, constant system that is still
4 Criticism and Challenges The first point of criticism against victim participation in restorative justice processes arises from scepticism about an apology to the victim as a way of dealing with criminal matters. The perception sometimes exists as to it simply being a way to get away with the crime.106 Members of the public should thus be educated to understand that restorative justice is more than a mere saying sorry, but in the context of victim offender mediation or family group conferences it rather affords the victim the opportunity to confront the child offender with the real and human cost of his or her criminal actions. Another concern deals with the possible secondary victimisation of the victim in the case where the offender pretends
Restorative Justice processes are likely to reduce criminals from repeating offenses, as numerous recidivism studies have demonstrated. Thus, it would be more than justified to employ restorative processes a response to crimes under
Today our justice system has a multitude of options when dealing with those who are convicted of offenses. However, many argue that retributive justice is the only real justice there is. This is mainly because its advantage is that it gives criminals the appropriate punishment that they deserve. The goals of this approach are clear and direct. In his book The Little Book of Restorative Justice, Zehr Howard (2002), illustrates that the central focus of retributive justice is offenders getting what they deserve (p. 30).
In the criminal justice system, the corrections component is also responsible for the rehabilitation of the convicted individual. It is their duty to attempt to make the defendant a productive member of society once again. Based on the individual’s behavior while incarcerated, the court and corrections officials may decide to place them on parole, which ensures that the individual will comply with the rules of society once they are fully released from the system. The criminal justice system is an essential role in the organizational structure of not only the United States but also in countries around the world. If there were no criminal justice system to administer punishment, the world would be unstructured, disorganized, unjustified, cruel, and not to mention a chaotic place for it citizens.
As expressed in our textbook, Restorative Justice Today, one of the most rudimentary aspects of a restorative application is to, “bring harmed people together with those who cause the harm to discuss how they were affected, to take accountability… and to address ways the harm might be repaired” (Wormer & Walker, 2013). Hence, the documentary’s deposition is its inability to identify approaches towards bringing several societal members together such as those perceived to cause the harm (prosecutors, judges, and police officers) with those harmed (the wrongfully convicted, their families, and members of the community). Thus, while institutional errors of this magnitude are understandably difficult to address and are equally difficult to contrive ways to convene, a severe weakness of this film is its inability to obtain perspectives outside of its own such as that of the offending parties. Although understandable as a work seeking to recount the suppressed stories of this marginalized community, through a restorative lens, its debility is its lack of attempts to conduct restorative practices such as attempting to contact offending individuals willing to right these wrongs.
Batley (2005) stated that restorative justice is about restoring, healing and re- integrating victims, offenders, as well as the society and also preventing further harm. In this assignment, I will be discussing approaches to restorative justice and illustrating their advantages and disadvantages to offending. I will also provide the applications of these five approaches of restorative justice which are retributive approach, utilitarian deterrence approach, rehabilitation approach, restitution approach and restorative approach in the given case study. I will then explain my preferred approach to justice through identifying a personal belief or value that underpins my choice.
Though forgiveness and clemency matter significantly in social life, they play comparatively small roles in criminal justice system. The criminal procedure is dominated by the State whose interests in deterring, debilitating and imposing retribution leave little room for forgiveness. However, justice need not be so austere, intangible and uncongenial. A more modified, concrete criminal justice system could give much better credence to the benefit and needs of the offenders, victims and members of the society. An offender usually inflicts both physical and psychological injuries upon a victim.