Restorative justice

• What is restorative justice?

  • a system for dealing with criminal behaviour which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims.
  • Enables the offender to see the impact of their crime and serves to empower victims by giving them a voice.
• Features involved in RJ

  • Focus on acceptance of responsibility and positive change for people who harm others, less emphasis on punishment
  • Not restricted to courtrooms, survivors and those responsible for harm may choose to meet face-to-face in a non-courtroom setting
  • Active involvement (instead of passive) of all parties in the process
  • Focus on positive outcomes for survivors and those who have engaged in
• What is the RJ process?

  • A supervised meeting is organised between the two parties, based on the principles of healing and empowerment
  • A trained mediator also attends
  • Victim is given opportunity to confront offender and explain how the incident affected them
  • Offender is able to see consequence of their actions, vital part to the rehabilitation process
• Strength of RJ as a diverse programme (AO3)

  • Degree of flexibility to implementing the programme, covering multiple applications.
  • unlike custodial sentencing which takes a ‘one size fits all’ approach
  • schemes can be adapted/tailored to the needs of each individual situation
  • may result in a better response to decreasing reoffending rates and rehabilitating criminals.
  • This may be therefore more effective in the long-term scheme of things.
• Limitation of RJ relying on remorse (AO3)

  • Success of RJ tends to rely on how remorseful an offender may feel for their actions.
  • May result in offenders signing up for the scheme to avoid prison or have their sentence reduced rather than a willingness to make amends.
  • Victim could also have an ulterior motive such as revenge or retribution of their own.
  • Therefore, restorative justice programmes may not lead to positive outcomes, cannot be said to be an effective approach in reducing recidivism.
• Limitation of RJ, lack of cost-efficacy (AO3)

  • RJ requires a skilled/experienced mediator.
  • Therefore, specialists are needed which may be rare and expensive to employ, resulting in more money spent for an uncertain result.
  • Not necessarily cost-effective.
  • Also has high dropout rates due to victim or offender not wanting to participate anymore
• Strength of RJ being cost effective- Shapland et al (AO3)

  • a 7-year government funded research project.
  • FOUND: every £1 spent on restorative justice, saved criminal justice system £8 through reduced reoffending.
• Issues and debates eval- RJ and beta bias (AO3)

  • RJ minimises the differences in gender (BETA BIAS) and how different genders may act towards taking responsibility.
  • Feminist commentators, including the charity Women’s Aid have called for a legislative ban of RJ in domestic violence cases
  • Power imbalance between the abuser and victim, RJ could be used as an opportunity to further abuse/taunt victim, victim is likely to be blamed for the situation.
  • Therefore RJ may not be appropriate for all crimes and should review how it may impact different genders.
• Variation of rj

  • Offender may make some financial restitution to victim, reflecting psychological/physical damage done (e.g. after a break-in, paying back what was stolen or broken)
  • Offender may repair damaged property themselves
• The Restorative Justice Council

  • An independent body whose role is to establish clear standards for the use of RJ to support victims and specialist professionals.
  • The RJC advocates for the use of restorative practice in preventing and managing conflict in communal areas (e.g. schools, workplaces, hospitals, children’s services etc.)