Reparation

What does reparation involve?

Reparation involves the offender making amends for a wrong that they have done, whether to an individual victim, society as a whole, or both.

What types of harm can an offender have done?

The harm done can be both material and social.

What can making amends for material damage include?

Making amends for material damage can include:

• Financial compensation to the victim, for example paying for the cost of repairing damage done to someone’s property. Courts have the power to impose compensation orders on offenders.

• Unpaid work to make reparation to society through Community Payback, for example by removing graffiti from public buildings. This is imposed by the court as part of a Community Order.

What does repairing social damage involve from the offender?

Making amends for the social damage done involves the offender recognising the wrongfulness of their actions.

What schemes can help offenders to realise the wrongfulness of their actions?

This can be done through restorative justice schemes, which bring offender and victim together, often with the help of a mediator.

What do restorative justice schemes allow the victim and offender to do?

This allows the victim to explain the impact that the crime has had. The offender can come to appreciate the harm that they have caused, express their remorse and seek forgiveness.

What can restorative justice bring to the victim and help the offender with?

Restorative justice can help bring closure to the victim and reintegrate the offender into society.

What theory favours restorative justice to reintegrate offenders and why?

Labelling theory favours restorative justice as a way of reintegrating offenders into mainstream society. By enabling them to show genuine remorse, it permits their reintegration and prevents them being pushed into secondary deviance.

What theorists argue that restitution is essential?

Functionalists such as Durkheim argue that ‘restitutive justice’ - reparation to put things back to how they were before the crime was committed - is essential for the smooth functioning of complex modern societies.

What is a criticism of reparation that relates to the type of offence?

Reparation may not work for all types of offence. Compensation for damage to property or minor offences may be fairly straightforward, but it is debatable as to whether reparation can truly be made for sexual or violent crimes. A rape victim may not want to face or forgive the rapist, and by definition, reparation to homicide victims is impossible.

What is a criticism of reparation in relation to the severity of punishment?

Some regard reparation as too soft a form of punishment that lets offenders off lightly.