Restorative Justice’s Popular Appeal

What is happening in legal and judicial circles is something new and unexpected - restorative justice is increasingly being viewed as an alternative to traditional applications of criminal justice. The restorative justice concept of having the emphasis on victim needs and the personalizing of conflict resolution holds a particular appeal.  In fact it is  an attractive choice for those dissatisfied with the adversarial, impersonal, and retributive focus of the present criminal justice system. Since the study of restorative justice is still in its infancy there are several directions that evaluations are discovering.  Right now there is an evaluation that examines a prison diversion program that followed restorative justice principles. The results have been encouraging for jurisdictions experimenting with this new approach to justice and seeking a more integrated role for victims in criminal justice processing.

Restorative justice is a forward-looking, restorative justice is also a  preventive response that aims to understand crime in its social context. The challenge that restorative justice brings to us is to examine the root causes of violence and crime in order that these cycles might be broken, but this approach hinges on the assumption that crime has its origins in social conditions and that the offenders themselves have often suffered harm. Now following this logic trail, the communities involved must both take some responsibility for remedying those conditions that contribute to crime and at the same time promote healing.

Restorative justice is becoming a popular alternative to traditional approaches to criminal justice. The focus on victim needs and the personalizing of conflict resolution provides a  choice for those dissatisfied with the adversarial and retributive focus of the current  justice system. Several evaluations of restorative justice programs especially those with a diversion goal, have hardly controlled for the possibility of net widening and the influence of offender risk on recidivism.

Let’s take a look at restorative justice at different levels.  At the national level restorative justice takes on various forms, for example victim-offender mediation is perhaps the most common and involves face-to-face dialogues between victims and offenders.  In victim-offender meetings, offenders have a chance to take steps to make reparation to their victims which further than monetary compensation, and includes apology and explanation of how the crime occurred.

At the international level, restorative justice may have a role in responding to human rights violations / genocide cases. A critical step toward restorative justice is taken when governments tell the truth about past atrocities carried out by the state.  In fact its is thought that true healing requires 3 steps:

1. Remembering the atrocities committed
2. Repenting
3. Forgiving.

Restoration can often become a matter of restitution or war reparations especially when there are clear acts of injustice.  In cases of civil war restoration often becomes linked to the transformation of the relationship between the conflicting parties, but such restoration can’t take place unless it is supported by social conditions and unless the larger community makes restorative processes possible.  Restorative justice is linked to social changes in the international context.   

Collins English Dictionary states: Restorative Justice - (Law) a method of dealing with convicted criminals in which they are urged to accept responsibility for their offences through meeting victims, making amends to victims or the community, etc.

As per Wikipedia, Restorative Justice is further explained by asking the following questions. Instead of 1. What laws have been broken?, 2. Who did it?, 3. What do they deserve?", restorative justice asks, "1. Who has been hurt?, 2. What are their needs?, 3. Whose obligations are these?".

What are the Aims of Restorative Justice?

Restorative justice deals with healing victims' wounds, restoring offenders to law-abiding livelihoods, and repairing harm done to relationships and the community. Restorative justice  seeks to involve stakeholders and provide opportunities for those affected by the crime to be directly involved in the process of responding to the harm caused.

A main premise of restorative justice is that victims, offenders, and the affected communities are all key stakeholders in the restorative process, and victims include not only those directly affected, but also family members and community members.   That is why the safety/support/ needs of these victims are the starting points for any restorative justice process.

A Different Look at Restorative Justice

There is a very serious challenge to restorative justice, and that challenge is being analyzed in a recent publication.  Basically the restorative justice movement has tremendous potential to reform the way society responds to crime, and it may be assume the greatest challenge to the new restorative justice paradigm is the traditional punitive criminal justice paradigm itself. But an actual threat is presented by merging community justice, another approach to reforming the justice system, with restorative justice. Community justice has some superficial similarities to restorative justice but also relies on the underlying authoritarian assumptions of the existing criminal justice system.  This publication looks at the similarities and differences between the restorative justice and the community justice paradigms and explains the threat to restorative justice posed by combining the two systems.