JS 318 - Restorative Justice

What is the promise of restorative justice?

The inclusion of victims, offenders, and the community who have been touched by crime.

What are the critical elements of inclusion in restorative justice?

1. Invitation 2. Recognition and acceptance of interests 3. Willingness to adopt alternative approaches.

How does inclusion benefit victims in the criminal justice system?

It allows for direct and active involvement in procedures following a crime.

What are three ways victims can be included in the criminal justice system?

1. Provide them with information 2. Permit them to observe 3. Allow them to make a formal presentation at sentencing.

What is the role of the crown prosecutor regarding victim participation?

Victim participation is typically procedural and not substantive.

What are the purposes of victim impact statements?

1. Inform the court 2. Educate the defendant 3. Empower the victim.

What are the two aims of victim impact statements according to the Manikis Study?

1. Instrumental - influence the sentence 2. Expressive - communicate a message.

How can inclusion benefit offenders in the criminal justice system?

It allows them to choose to cooperate and provides legal protections.

How are community members affected by crime in the context of restorative justice?

They can be secondary victims and experience harm from the crime.

What is the practical implication for the justice system regarding legal representation for victims?

Victims could obtain legal representation for stages related to restitution or protection.

What is the prosecutor's role in the decision to prosecute?

The decision remains with the prosecutor to protect the public's interest.

How can sentences be constructed to support restitution?

Sentences could be designed to increase the likelihood of restitution being ordered and paid.

Why might community participation in restorative justice be important?

It can provide access to relevant information about social problems that may lead to less offending.

What is a key difference in resources between individuals and the government in the justice system?

An individual never has the same resources as the government.

What is the impact of victim participation on restitution compliance?

Compliance with restitution orders tends to be significantly higher when victims are involved.

What does inclusion in restorative justice aim to achieve for victims?

It aims to ensure that victims are heard and their experiences are acknowledged in the justice process.

What might be a therapeutic effect of victim impact statements?

They provide a therapeutic event for victims by allowing them to be heard.

What are encounters in restorative justice?

Facilitated meetings where the people who have been harmed and their supporters, talk with people who have harmed them and their supporters to discuss the wrong done, the harm that resulted and how to make it right

What does restorative justice dialogue provide for?

1. To humanise the justice process

2. Provide victims with a voice

3. Help offenders develop empathy

4. Giving the offender a chance to turn their life around

5. Providing the community members with a stake in how delinquent and criminal acts are resolved in their community

6. Augmenting the resources available to professionals within the criminal justice system

What is the role of the state in restorative justice?

To create a space for dialogue to transpire.

What are the elements of encounter? Define them

Meeting = The ideal includes a face-to-face meeting of the stakeholders

Understanding = The process can lead to empathy, understanding the event from the others' perspective Agreement = Arrive at a mutually satisfactory agreement that is particular to the event and is achievable, cooperative rather than adversarial and must also be within the law and what it would prescribe

To get to a point of understanding you must have:

Narrative and emotion

How do emotions play a role in restorative justice?

Emotions can drive empathy and help participants connect with each other's experiences.

What are the risks associated with encounter

Power dynamics, due process violations and trauma

What are power dynamics in restorative justice?

The key is to provide the option to participate as honestly, objectively and non-judgementally as possible

The idea of making someone feeling guilty based on power dynamics

Examples; parents and children, victim and non-victim

What are due process violations in restorative justice?

Due to the informal nature of restorative encounters, concerns are raised with respect to the potential to violate due process rights

The UN has provided a list of suggestions to protect against this

What is trauma in relation to risks associated with encounter?

You are forced to challenge your self-concept

What are some safeguards needed in restorative justice encounters?

Program policies, facilitator training, and ensuring a safe environment.

What does the encounter empower participants to do?

Engage in truth-telling, take responsibility, and offer apologies.

What is the definition of repair?

The efforts to assist those who have been harmed. The restorative goal is for the person who caused harm to make amends to the greatest extent possible without creating new harms. Making amends does not undo the past but it takes a step to repair the harm caused

What are the three elements of repair in restorative justice?

Needs-focused, amends-focused, and justice-enforced.

What does needs-focused repair entail?

Providing vindication for victims and accountability for offenders while addressing their needs.

What is remorse?

A genuine expression that someone feels bad about it/of remorse for wrongdoing by people who have caused harm to those they have harmed is fundamental to both parties' sense of justice

What are the three elements of a genuine apology?

Acknowledgment "It was wrong and I did it"

Affect = "I am troubled by what I did"

Vulnerability = "I am without defence"

What are the 4 characteristics of guided restitution?

1. Restitution is an active effortful role for the offender

2. The active effortful role is also a constructive and helpful effort directed toward the victim of the offence

3. The constructive or helpful aspect of the restitutional act is related to the nature of the damage or harm resulting from the offence

4. The nature of the relationship between the restitutional act and the offence is reparative of damage done to person or property

What are the 2 characteristics of creative restitution?

1. The second mile; The reparative effort goes beyond restoring a situation to the status quo ante

2. Mutual help programs (an offender engages in an activity on behalf of or to support other offenders. Ex; AA)

What is Braithwaite's regulatory pyramid?

An attempt to solve the puzzle of when to persuade and when to punish. Dynamic model. Firm yet forgiving. Demands for compliance

What is justice-informed repair?

A commitment to restitution involved a commitment to making it feasible. We must take into account the offenders circumstances

What shows genuine change?

Change in values and behaviour

What are the 3 strategies for changing behaviour that are often seen in restorative justice agreements

1. Change of environment

2. Learning new behaviours

3. Rewarding positive change

What 2 reasons are why many victims become involved in the restorative justice process?

Define reintegration

The re-entry of a person - it could be a victim or an offender - into community life as a whole, contributing, productive member of the community

What do victims face when reintegrating?

blamed by others, shame and rejection

What do offenders face when reintegrating?

held in contempt, outcasts and alienated

What is shaming?

Social disapproval, which has the "intention of invoking remorse in the person being shamed and/or condemnation by others who become aware of the sambaing

What is disintegrative shame?

What is reintegrative shame?

What are the elements of reintegration?

Safety, respect, material assistance and moral/spiritual assistance

What conditions are conducive to reintegrative shame?

What do offenders need to reintegrate, break them down.

Safety of offender and community (risk assessments)

Provision of services (Government-community collaborations could ensure that offenders receive necessary services and supervision)

Trained mentor (Who is trained to work with the offender effectively and help him or her to become reintegrated into the community. A mentor who is a kind of sponsor and advisor; someone who is both an advocate for and friend to the offender)

What are the 4 myths of restorative justice?

1. Opposite of retributive justice

2. Uses indigenous practice and was the dominant form of pre-modern justice

3. A "care" (or feminine) response to crime in comparison to "justice" (or masculine) response

4. Can be expected to produce major changes in people

What are the 11 critiques that Morris (2002) used to critique the critics?

1. RJ ERODES LEGAL RIGHTS

2. RJ RESULTS IN NET WIDENING

3. RJ TRIVIALIZES CRIME

4. RJ FAILS TO "RESTORE" VICTIMS AND OFFENDERS

5. RJ FAILS TO EFFECT REAL CHANGE

6. RJ RESULTS IN DISCRIMINATORY OUTCOMES

7. RJ EXTENDS POLICE POWERS

8. RJ LEAVES POWER IMBALANCES UNTOUCHED

9. RJ ENCOURAGES VIGILANTISM

10. RJ LACKS LEGITIMACY

11. RJ FAILS TO PROVIDE "JUSTICE"

What is transitional justice?

The study of choices made and the quality of justice rendered when states are replacing authoritarian regimes by democratic institutions.

The sum of activities through which states and citizens redress past political injustices

What are Yacoubian's (2003) options for addressing mass violations of human rights?

•DOING NOTHING

•GRANTING AMNESTY

•TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION (TRC)

•DOMESTIC PROSECUTIONS

•CREATING AD HOC INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS

•ADDITIONAL LOCALIZED RESTORATIVE JUSTICE APPROACHES?

Conceptual framework: What are the 6 transitional justice themes, break them down.

1. Reconciliation = rebuilding fractured individual and communal relationships

2. Peace = absence of conflict, building trust and encouraging interaction

3. Justice = retributive, deterrent & restorative

4. Healing = addressing physical, emotional & psychological trauma

5. Forgiveness = a complex act of consciousness to overcome injury and restore relationships

6. Truth = peoples understanding of what occurred

What are the transitional & restorative justice shared principles?

1. Focus on the victims views

2. Importance of inclusion & active participation

3. Expanded understanding of accountability

4. Importance of truth telling at different levels

5. Relational focus

What is included in Nils Christie's conflict as property?

1. Called for participatory justice

• Victim is a double loser

• Involvement not represented

2. Value of conflict

• Reduce segmentation

• Opportunity for norm clarification

• Reduction in anxiety and misconceptions