Restorative justice is a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large. Understanding the definition may be really hard to understand, however when we put it in a different form that many can understand it comes down to repair, encounter and transformation. Our book describes restorative justice in three parts as accountability, community protection and competency development (Sieh, 2006). Accountability gives the offender the opportunity to take responsibility for their actions. The offender needs to acknowledge that the behavior that was committed resulted from a choice, and that they had a choice to not commit this criminal act that affected the victim greatly. Along with acknowledgement, it is also taking action to repair the harm that was committed (Guide For Implementing the Balanced and Restorative Justice Model, n.d.). The offender also needs to make the necessary changes to avoid this same behavior in the future and committing a criminal act in the future. With accountability as a goal a process and the offender are guided through the process by many participating individuals within the justice system. The probation or parole officers may be on the front line to help guide the offender through the process and allow them to have the face to face meeting with community members or the victim. There needs to be a support system, this can include family, extended
Restorative justice is rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community. Restorative justice programs are conferences held to enable offenders, victims and community members to meet face to face to discuss the crime that was done and determine the best way to repair the harm. Usually when offenders hear their victims describe the effect the crime had on them, they often feel sympathy and express remorse. Restorative justice conferences give the victims and community member’s justice and satisfaction. I believe the system is good because it gives criminals time to try and better themselves and try to change, and also gives justice and closure to the victims.
The United States criminal justice is based on retributive justice. Putting offenders in prisons and jails as a source of punishment without rehabilitation has not helped them to become better citizens. " Restorative justice (RJ) is an option for doing justice after the occurrence of an offence that is primarily oriented towards repairing the individual, relational and social harm caused by that offence. (p.20)," says Prof. Dr. Katalin Gönczöl in European Best Practices of Restorative Justice in the Criminal Procedure. Retributive justice does not allow the victim, community or the offender have a say in what happens after the offence has been made.
Restorative justice is a very complex process in the justice system. It is a positive program that helps in the aid of victims of crimes. The process for restorative justice is broken down into steps which map out how the process should take place. According to Johnstone, “Restorative justice is the theory that justice aids the victim and emphasizes the repair of harm caused by unjust or harmful behavior.” In my opinion the restorative justice process is a great accomplishment to the justice system. Restorative justice does not always work as intended but the theory of which it is intended for is enough to be improved upon.
Restorative justice is a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large. I think this is a good system to help people through tough times. Another system is the death penalty. The death penalty is when you did a really bad crime like kill someone, they have a choice to kill you. They kill you by injecting drugs into your veins. The church is against this because it is wrong to take someone's life from them. I am both for and not for the death penalty. I am for it because if someone did first degree murder they should get killed for it. I say this because when they murdered the person they have hurt everyone that knew the person. That is why I think
Restorative justice focuses on "...repairing harm caused by criminal behavior." According to "restorativejustive.org.". Typically criminals are taken over by the state at the point of conviction and all type of interaction with the corrections process is between
Restorative Justice will not make the basic prejudices on our society worse than what they are, however restorative justice should restore synchronization within the community or society as a whole through based on discussion of the offender’s underlying problems and not to reoffend against the victim in particular nor any member of society, and what charges the offender may face if he re-offends “Restorative justice is deliberative justice; it is about people deliberating over the consequences of crimes, and how to deal with them and prevent their recurrence” (Braithwaite, 1998, p. 438).
Restorative justice is “a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large” (Centre for Justice and Reconciliation). The purpose of restorative justice is to repair or “restore” the harm that a crime has caused.
There are already existing restorative practices that are place within the conventional criminal justice system at present namely probation, restitution and community service (Zehr, 1990). Admittedly they are not readily termed restorative justice programs however they are grounded in its theory.
The criminal justice system is a set of agencies and processes established by governments to control crime and impose penalties on those who violate laws. Different jurisdictions have diverse laws, agencies, and ways of managing criminal justice processes. In recent years, it has been debated that the criminal justice system has two primary and possibility conflicting perspectives known as the retributive justice approach and the restorative justice approach. Retributive justice and restorative justice have contrasting approaches when imposing punishment, that will be explored within this research paper, in regards to the disadvantages and potential advantages resulting from the implementation of it’s polices within the criminal justice system. These two perspectives have been implemented amongst many different criminal justice systems internationally, however the questions still remain, what is justice? And how should justice be served? This debate has created a divide between countries, due to the differing interpretations of justice and it’s response to criminal activity. The statistical information has been extracted from various online sources listed within the references as well as primary and secondary sources, “Prisons” by Haley, James and “Alternatives to Prisons” by Jennifer Skancke.
Thus Restorative Justice (RJ) may have a bigger role in changing offenders’ behaviour. RJ involves bringing together all parties affected by a specific offence and forming a collective decision on how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future (Marshall, 1996). During a RJ conference offenders meet their victims in a controlled environment, facilitated by a trained facilitator, to discuss and resolve the offense and its consequences (Strang et al, 2013). The facilitator is responsible for supporting and preparing participants (Restorative Justice Council, 2015) and also helps to guide them in dialogue to ensure that each participant has a voice in the proceedings (MOJ, 2013b). In cases where a face to
Before Restorative justice came along victims did not have a voice. They were the ones that had to cry in silence while the offenders go on with their lives. Restorative justice repairs the harm caused by crime. It is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of the victims and the offenders, as well as the involved community. Some of the main approaches are to punish the offender or satisfy legal principles. Nowadays getting restorative Justice isn’t hard there are so many people out there that want to help. The comfort women who were exploited during World War 2 and Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 didn’t have the resources we have today. It took years for them to get there justice.
The main objective of Restorative Justice is repairing the relationship between the victim and offender; this can be accomplished by considering the view, experiences and wishes of the victim. At the heart of Restorative Justice are the rights and interests of the victim (Littlechild., 2011). Many victims are shocked at the first thought of coming face-to-face with their offender when the idea is first offered to them, especially if the crime involved violence; after the Restorative Justice process, they come to obtain much more satisfaction with the justice system than they would have through the traditional criminal justice process (Strang. & Sherman., n.d.). Van Camp and Wemmers (2016), argued that many victims of crimes would like to be given the option of Restorative Justice because in many cases they are not; it enables the victims to make choices
Restorative justice has some key restorative values that are vital in the restorative justice conference to make the experience ‘restorative’. Concerning addressing victim needs and concerns means for listening, respecting, being non-judgmental, not blaming the victim and apologizing. The RJ system was bought as an alternative to the criminal justice system to give greater emphasis on victim rights and needs, offender accountability and community involvement. Throughout the essay, there will be an insight into how Restorative Justice addresses needs of victims in terms of the different proponents such as Information provided to victim, restitution/compensation, emotional and practical needs met, participation and involvement of victim and protection of victim, which (Wemmers and Marisa, 2002) as essentials to victims participating in the practice. The two countries that will be addressed will have had restorative justice built out of injustices and over-representation of the current criminal justice system to the indigenous peoples of those countries.
The basic principles of restorative justice is that crimes causes harm to people and the justice should be focus on repairing the harm. Whenever a crime takes place to or on a victim, they should be able to speak on how the punishment should be. They are allowed to have a voice in the sentencing phase of the punishment. This allows the victim, community and the perpetrator to come together too find the best resolution. While the restorative justice is good for the victims and communities, this allows the offender to take responsibility for the crime and understand how it has affected the community. In order to reduce future crimes from happening, this tells the offender that we want to help you and we care about your future. The court has some
Respect, forgiveness, and love for an individual are vital ingredients in building a peaceful relationship. Bullying among other anti-social behaviors are critical issues confronting the school safety and progress. If the school safety is been threatens with all forms of anti-social behaviors, how would the school achieve her set developmental goals amidst these behaviours? Much emphasis has been place on punishment, suspension, expulsion in resolving the students behavior in which bullying is one of behavioural challenges faced by the school authority. There are signs Restorative philosophy is a significant shift from punishment-oriented thinking to a relational-oriented thinking. Indications have emerged that these pre-emptive measures that is employed in tackling bullying as anti-social behavior have little or no effects on the school safety measure and it could hindered the good relationship within the school community (Varnham, 2005).