The Restorative Justice Model

Restorative justice is a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large. Generally, restorative justice is a way of seeing crime as more than breaking the law and it also causes harm to people, relationships, and the community (Zehr, 2002). It is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior. Restorative also tell us about the different way of thinking about different crime and how our response sounds like towards every crime. It also seeks redress for victims often recommended by reintegration and offenders of both within the community. This also requires a co-operative effort by government and communities.

Researches

It is argued that greater focus needs to be placed on psychological approaches whose goal is to connect with and activate internal values within wrongdoers with the goal of encouraging self-regulatory law-related behavior in the future. The impact of restorative justice on lowering the rate of recidivism is not solely limited to participants. The criminal justice system as a whole may be significant affected by the proliferation of restorative practices (Gehm, 2003). For instance, asking questions such as what are the financial costs associated with restorative justice programming compared to traditional responses to crime? It is reasonable assume that the options now available to a police officer or crown attorney when dealing with an offender are different with the increasing accessibility to restorative justice

Procedural justice research suggests that there is another possible route to effective social regulation besides punitive punishment (Tyler, 1990). The route also involves a way of treating people with respect and procedural justice. When people are being treated well, they view legal authorities and laws as more legitimate and obeyed them. As a result, people become self amendable taking on the personal responsibility for following social rules. Is procedural or moral justice applicable for this aim? Based on theories of inclusive of behavioral, societal and interpersonal psychology, the most influential to reducing recidivism is that of restorative justice. Moral justice reflects the perceptions and moral values of its social structure else face not only resistance to comply but a reduction in the social perception regarding the legitimacy of their authority. The major differences between the current justice model and restorative justice models is a shift in focus from satisfying generalized social justice to satisfying micro-justice as well. This has allowed greater involvement for victims regarding procedures, requirements for restitution and a voice in sentencing as well as opportunities to communicate with the offender in a personal manner (Cialdini, 2007). Furthermore, this also provides an opportunity for the perpetrator to become witness to the effects of their act