Restorative Justice

Restorative Justice

... a system for dealing with criminal behaviour which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims

Overview of Restorative Justice

this enables the offender to see the impact of their crime and serves to empower victims by giving them a "voice"

- Usually involves the offender coming face to face with their victim

- If managed carefully, this can be a crucial phase in an offender's rehabilitation

- It may also help the victim to put the incident behind them, and allow them to move on with their life

Changing the emphasis

traditional views of law enforcement see any offence as a crime against the state

... this would mean that punishment had to suit the needs of the state - to punish and enforce the law

=>.restorative justice programmes switch the view, to focus on the needs of the individual victim

... to come to terms with the crime and move on

=> victims therefore are encouraged to take an active role in the process, and offenders are required to take responsibility for their crime and face up to what they have done

Key features of restorative justice

- Focuses on accepting responsibility and positive changes, less emphasis on punishment

- Not limited to formal courtrooms, could also meet in natural environment

- Active involvement of all parties, rather than passive

- Focuses on positive outcomes for survivors and offenders

Principles of healing and empowerment

- Supervised meeting with 2 parties is arranged

- Victim is able to confront offender and explain impact of crime on them

- Offender sees the human cost of their crime, and see the consequences of their actions

Variations

- Some cases involve some financial restitution to make up for physical/psychological damage e.g., break ins

- Can be a flexible alternate to prison

- Can be additional to community service or may shorten sentence

The Restorative Justice Council

Is an independent body whose role it is to establish clear standards for the use of restorative justice and to support victims and specialist professionals in the field.

A03 STRENGTH - holistic and easy

P

A strength of restorative justice is that is a holistic approach to the criminal justice system.

EV

Programmes can be tailored to different situations or circumstances, with every programme being extremely unique and specified to an offender's crime, the aims of their restoration, and the steps that they must take in order to repent.

EX

This is positive as it can be adapted to the needs of an induvial and has some degree of flexibility, unlike custodial sentencing which tends to adopt a "one size fits all" approach.

C

On the other hand, highly trained, skilled, and experienced professionals may be needed to act as mediators, and training or employing these professionals is likely to be highly expensive or lacking in numbers.

LB

As a result of this, although restorative justice programmes seem to be effective in deterring re-offending, it is unrealistic to use this on a larger scale and may not be the best and most cost-effective solution.

A03 WEAKNESS - remorse

P

Restorative justice relies on offender remorse.

EV

Offenders who are psychopathic will not be well suited to this as will not see the fault in their crime and may even be proud of it and some offenders may take part to get time off their sentence or to avoid prison, and not actually regret their crime. The victims may also have ulterior motives to seek revenge on the offending.

EX

This means that restorative justice programmes may not lead to positive outcomes when participants do not have the best of intentions and may actually lead to re-offending behaviour.

EXT

As well as this, there are extremely high dropout rates as offenders may lose their nerve and feel that they are not able to face the reality of their crime or the victim face to face, or the victim may feel that it is too traumatic or upsetting to see the offender due to the damage they have inflicted.

LB

Therefore, restorative justice may have limited use in the criminal justice system as in ineffective unless both parties are willing for it to be successful.

A03 WEAKNESS - feminist approach + soft

P

There is a growing number of feminist commentators who take issue with restorative justice's widespread use.

EV

For example, Women's Aid have called for a legalisation ban on the use of restorative justice in domestic violence cases due to concerns relating to the power imbalances relationship between abuser and the abused.

EX

This presents a huge degree of bias as domestic violence and rape cases tend have female victims and male abusers, and by using restorative justice, women have to relive their trauma in order to accommodate for a man's conscious.

EXT

Furthermore, restorative justice tends not receive much public support as it is often regarded as a soft option. Some people believe that apologising for their crime is not enough and does not fulfil the retribution aim as offenders do not suffer.

LB

Consequently, it could be argued that offenders should be made to pay in much harsher ways for their crimes, and that restorative justice is not suitable for more severe crimes.