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Restorative Justice Is The Process Of Rebuilding Relationships With The Victims, Offenders, And The Community

Decent Essays

1. Using at least 250 words, explain each of the guiding principles of restorative justice.
Restorative justice is the process of rebuilding relationships with the victims, offenders, and the community that are guided by principles of the law. In the beginning offenders went through criminal prosecution and conventional sentencing to deal with crime in the community which did not restore anything for the victim. As an alternative, advocates of restorative justice suggest that the guiding principles of the criminal sanction should be to decrease harm by restoring the victim to his or her prior unharmed status and the offender to the community (Lilly, Cullen, Ball, 2015). Restorative justice clearly recognizes that crime is wrong and the …show more content…

It also involves reintegrating the offender back into society to where they can once again be productive citizens in the community that they may share with the victim. During the restoration process the offender is treated like a person with hope of a positive outcome so that they are not labeled for the rest of their lives. Studies and experience elsewhere have found this to be an effective and efficient process to reduce court time and improve satisfaction with the result compared to ordinary prosecution (Fossum, 2017).

2. Akers postulated four central concepts. Using at least 250 words, describe and explain those concepts.
Ronald Akers social learning theory shows how crime is a learned behavior from the social interaction with others and the communities they live in. He better explains this theory through key concepts like differential association, definitions, imitation, and differential reinforcement to define his theory.
Differential association is the process through which individuals are exposed to definitions favorable and unfavorable to illegal or law-abiding behavior (Lilly, Cullen, Ball, 2015). It is broken down into two dimensions called interactional and normative. There is a notion that people tend to learn values and behaviors associated with crimes. Differential association is important due to the group exposure to definitions, providing models to imitate, and reinforcement for

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