Restorative Justice And Domestic Violence Essay

Restorative justice has shown some positive results, with the victims being able to forgive the offender for the offense committed against them bringing a sense of closure. There were little feelings of revenge that typically lingers and leave the victim confused about the decision of restorative justice

This essay will critically analyse and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of retributivism. Throughout history the term “retributivism” has had a diverse though correlated meanings. The most significant meaning of retributivism is righting or rebalancing the scale of justice, through the use of mechanisms such as punishment e.g. punishing criminals in order to achieve justice for the offence they have committed. Retributivism also looks back at the offence, since the offender has committed a wrongful offence which needs to be punished. One of the core reasons why offenders should be punished is that they need to ‘pay back’ for the offence they have committed; the theory that is associated with retributivism is the just deserts theory. A theory is a concept that is based upon a hypothesis that can be supported with evidence. The just desert theory is used to justify retributivism punishment. Unlike other theories of punishment that mainly concentrates on preventing future crime, such as rehabilitation, deterrence and reductivism. The retributivist theory primarily concentrates on punishing past crimes. Although others would disagree with this for the reason that they think punishment should be used to ‘reduce’ and ‘prevent future crimes’ (Carlsmith et al., 2002 p284). The essay will take into account the views of various theories; theorist and philosophers so that the strengths and weaknesses of

James Dignan’s concepts related to offenders, but mostly, related to victims. In his work “The victim in restorative justice” (2007), he argues that restorative justice “has a tendency to focus primarily on offenders and reconviction rates rather than on victim-related concerns” (p.309). Dignan goes on explaining that only after Braithwaite’s theory became more developed in Australia and New Zealand, the role of victims became clearer (Dignan, 2007). He says that there are beneficial distinctions between reciprocal benefits and one-sided benefits, depending on the interaction of the

Its most commonly known definition was provided by Marshall in 1996, that describes restorative justice as a process where both parties; victims and offenders, work together to restore, resolve and deal with the after effects of the offence and future ramifications (as cited in Van Camp & Wemmers, 2013). The concept of restorative justice originally derived from various indigenous and pre-industrial western justice practices, however, in the 1970's it begun to appear in modern times and was then developed as a reference to describe victim-offender programs that were developed in North America (Strang, 2001). Restorative Justice approaches spread across the world in the 1990's, where many countries such as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, began introducing these approaches as alternatives in their criminal justice systems (Braithwaite, 1999). The concept of restorative justice usually involves victim and offender direct participation and is conducted in the form of conferences or mediation. This is where both parties; the victims and offenders, come together fact-to-face in one location, alongside a facilitator, police and support people, and work out together the consequences of the offenders actions and the

While The Little Book of Restorative Justice for Colleges and Universities has many merits it also posses some off-putting weaknesses. Karp opens his work up for criticism and makes it less likely to be accepted or seen as a serious alternative to the traditional disciplinary systems with the inclusion of frivolous illustrations and talks of the spiritual. The Little Book also lacks much evidence outside of personal testimony or the authors own reasoning —while that can be strong evidence, empirical evidence have a place in this discussion.

The DTR Classroom Flow Chart, and the Restorative Justice and the Nine DTR Principles have powerful information and tools to manage conflict, and they present some similarities and differences. Restorative Justice (RJ) and the DTR Principles are alike as they recognize that the primary victims are the most impacted by the event . They see the crime or misbehavior as an offense against human relationships and respond to it at the earliest point possible with the maximum amount of cooperation, recognizing in the situation a teachable moment, and the danger and opportunity that the offense offers as well. As a result, they focus on making things as right as possible. When cooperation is not reached, RJ and

Restorative justice is a style of discipline found within the criminal justice system that focuses on the rehabilitation of juvenile and adult offenders through reconciliation with victims and society at large (Richards 2009). Practices and programs that reflect restorative purposes will respond to crime by identifying harm and pain caused, taking steps to mitigate damage, and finally repairing the harm caused. Restorative justice encompasses all

This began to change in the 1980s, as women’s groups were organized locally and internationally to demand attention to the physical, psychological, and economic abuse of women (p.369-370). Domestic violence is a serious social issue that happens to many women in our world today. This type of abuse is not declining but continually rising on a daily basis. There have been issues in the past with the way these cases were being handled. Today, there has been some improvement concerning the laws that have been enforced in order to protect women from this type of abuse. There has been extensive research done on this issue in the past concerning domestic violence. Over the last ten years there have been a number of surveys on domestic violence that have been published from around the world.

One of the major roots founded in the core of restorative justice is the connection, no matter how damaging, that links a victim to their offender. There is forever a connection developed between the victim and offender despite the lack of a previous knowledge of each other. The practice of RJ has been developed on three baselines; preparation, encounter, and follow-up. During preparation the provider focuses on explain accountability to the offender, focusing on the difference in

Restorative justice is the view towards crime as more than breaking the law. Restorative justice believes that crime causes harm to more than just the victim, it also causes harm to other factors such as the community, relationships and families. Therefore, a just response is required to deal with the harms and wrongdoing of the offender; a just response is a fair and candid response in the eyes of the law. If both parties are willing, they can meet to discuss the harms and how to bring about a resolution. However, there are alternatives if the clients do not want to meet. Although it is best if they do, as

In the Novel, Things Fall Apart by Achebe, readers witness the Ibo justice system in action throughout the story. During the week of peace, protagonist, Okonkwo acts in rage therefore resulting in punishment. His belongings are also burned, and he is exiled as punishment after an accidental shooting. Overall, there are four forms of justice: distributive justice, procedural justice, restorative justice, and retributive justice. I would like to focus on the last two, restorative and retributive justice (the ones readers see the most in the novel). Restorative justice restores order. An example of this type of justice is an easy apology. Restoration means returning back to the original state, so it may consist of some sort of repentance to demonstrate one is in fact apologetic.

The criminal justice system views any crime as a crime committed against the state and places much emphasis on retribution and paying back to the community, through time, fines or community work. Historically punishment has been a very public affair, which was once a key aspect of the punishment process, through the use of the stocks, dunking chair, pillory, and hangman’s noose, although in today’s society punishment has become a lot more private (Newburn, 2007). However it has been argued that although the debt against the state has been paid, the victim of the crime has been left with no legal input to seek adequate retribution from the offender, leaving the victim perhaps feeling unsatisfied with the criminal justice process.

Domestic Violence is a human tragedy, and has been a part of life for many individuals. It is not subjective to a particular group, race, or culture. Historically, the feminist movement preserved the theory that domestic violence is a growing matter because of the continuous power differential between the male gender and the female gender. Remarkably, this approach on domestic disputes unveiled the inner workings of barriers men, women, and children would face when in a domestic violence situation. The feminist theory emphasizes on studying “the gendered nature of all relationships…which aims at understanding how gender is related to social inequalities and oppression” (Marsigila & Kulis, 2015, p. 148). Disastrously, an ignorant notion that once dominated our culture was the belief that emotional agony was less painful than physical brutality. However,

The episode “Tango” in the television show “Law and Order” tells a story of an investigation regarding a murder of a teenage girl, including the arrest and prosecution of two different offenders within the criminal justice system. The story line and the characters embody different assumptions and values within their roles and the crime. There are many different restorative assumptions and values that are could have played a vital role in healing and resolution, but were unfortunately missing from the storyline. The portrayal of the criminal justice system that is represented in “Tango” does have an impact on viewer’s faith and perspective of the system and its effectiveness. These arguments are active in an analysis of the “Law and Order” episode “Tango” through a restorative justice lens.

Re-integration not segregation might be said to be the moral centre of restorative justice. Daly and others see it, as at least in part, a feminist issue, with the role of the state being a dominating masculine presence, which is in essence aggressive to both victim and offender, and a change in this dynamic must occur to allow inclusiveness (Daly,2008).